Safaricom promises to reduce mobile money fraud with new M-Pesa

An M-Pesa agent carries out a transaction. M-Pesa users will soon be able to see the names of intended mobile money transfer recipients as Safaricom rolls out a new redesign. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By WINFRED KURIA
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M-Pesa users will soon be able to see the names of the intended recipients of mobile money transfers before they approve transactions.

The telecommunications giant seeks to reduce errors that occur while sending funds.

The new service will be key in reducing fraud that has seen many customers lose money when they accidentally sent it to the wrong recipients.

“The functionality now in its final stages service is part of the enhancements that we are now able to deliver following the implementation of our new M-Pesa platform which is housed in Kenya,” said Ms Betty Mwangi, Safaricom financial services director.

Safaricom also recently launched another system that enables businesses to issue instant payment notifications with an optional validation step for the paybill to confirm whether to accept or decline an incoming payment.

Automated payment disbursements and automated payment reversals are also part of the new system that will see M-Pesa present vast opportunities though the open interfaces.