Are you a Safaricom M-pesa customer who usually sends a M-pesa message to show proof of successful transaction(s) to either a friend, relative or business partner?
If so ,its a sigh of relief because Safaricom has introduced a feature that hides balance in the transaction message when sharing messages to show proof of transaction.
“We have noted that many people have to delete their available balances when sharing messages to show proof of transaction. In the app, we have truncated that balance part so that if you are sharing the evidence, your balance does not appear,” said Mpesa African managing Director Sitoyo Lopokoiyit.
In addition customers can now accompany their transactions with additional information, emojis or even a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) image to make it more interesting.
“The new M-Pesa app is a lifestyle super-app for Kenyans. M-Pesa is there assisting users ever so silently and following on their life cycles so that whenever they need a financial transaction, it is available,” said Lopokoiyit.
The new feature available on the new M-Pesa App mostly targets MSMEs to enable them keep track of their expenditures.
According to Safaricom, the development is aimed at making M-Pesa more than just a monetary transaction app, with emoji and GIF features meant for expressing emotions.
“This is especially so for the micro-business enterprises from which many small purchases are made through M-Pesa. They can now track expenditure by seeing what message they attached to what transaction,” he said.
Lopokoiyit says that they are building a lifestyle app, where one can make all transactions in one place including paying Kenya Revenue Authorit(KRA), National Hospital Insurance Fund(NHIF), Kenya Power and others.
“We want to create a lifestyle around it. We want these mini-programmes to be available for all users and the app to be rolled out in all the seven countries in which we operate,” he added.
Currently, 3.9 million M-Pesa customers are using the app, even as the giant telecommunications targets 10 million customers in the near future.