MPESA coming back home

Mobile money provider MPESA will be migrating from its current generation one platform to a more robust platform, generation 2. This means that the will have to move their servers from their current location in Germany and UK, to Kenya. Mpesa has frozen most of its services starting Thursday the 16th of April at midnight until Sunday the 19th of April 11 pm.
Some of the MPESA services that will not be accessible include:
-Changing MPESA pin
-Transacting on M-Shwari and M-Kesho
-Sending money to an unregistered person
-Registering for MPESA
-Activating new sim card
The new platform dubbed G2 is expected to make MPESA services more efficient. It will be able to process 900 transactions per second up from the previous 450 transactions per second done by G1.

Mpesa has one hundred and fifty thousand merchants on its system enabling customers to do easy C2B transactions. Mpesa hit the 7 billion shillings daily mark at the end of last year. Having started off as mobile money transfer service, MPESA has quickly adapted to the payments front with its aggressive LIPA NA MPESA product.
Launched in March 2007, MPESA is the most successful mobile money product in the world today. With an agent network of 80, 000 and 20 million users MPESA is definitely the most successful story ever told.

Hawalas and Money remittance providers on the spotlight in fight against terrorism

Thirteen money remittance providers have had the bank accounts frozen by the government of Kenya in a move stem organizations that are suspected to be financing terrorist activities. This comes in the wake of the Garissa university attack which claimed 148 lives.However the MRPs have come out strongly to defend themselves claiming that they are legal entities that are regulated by the Central Bank Of Kenya and give daily and monthly returns. The money remittance providers say they should not be mistaken for Hawalas which are informal establishments.
The Money Remittance Providers say they contribute 30% of all remittances from the diaspora which total to 300 million dollars.Hawalas are not regulated by the CBK. A person sending money through a Hawala only needs to make a phone call to the agent that is completing the transaction. The sender also provides a password to the sending agent and receiving agent. Once the receiving party provides the password needed, the transaction is completed.
KYC or know your customer is not duly followed by Hawalas but MRPs follow this process. For example for amounts exceeding 10,000 dollars one must provide source of funds and what it is intended to do. MRPs also have a maximum limit of 100,000 dollars that can be transacted by any given customer.
Investopedia defines Hawalas thus: Hawala is a method of transferring money without any actual movement. One definition from Interpol is that Hawala is "money transfer without money movement." Transactions between Hawala brokers are done without promissory notes because the system is heavily based on trust.

Obama Coming to Kenya This July

US President Barrack Hussein Obama is scheduled to visit Kenya this coming July. Obama will be visiting Kenya for the first time since he was elected to the most powerful  seat in the world, Presidency of the United States of America. President Obama will be in Kenya for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 

Kenyans are so excited about this visit especially because Obama has his roots in this country. Obama's Father Barrack Obama senior hailed from Siaya and was studying in the US when he met Obama's mother.

The last time president Obama visited Kenya was in 2006 while still a senator for Illinois. Obama has repeatedly skipped Kenya as he visited other countries including neighboring Tanzania. He has also visited South Africa Egypt and Senegal.

The government of Kenya has agreed to co-host The Global Entrepreneurship Summit for 2015. The summit connects emerging entrepreneurs with leaders from Business, International organizations and Governments  looking to support them

Safaricom major changes to it's C-Level Management Sees Peter Arina Replaced by Sylvia Mulinge

Safaricom's General Manager, Consumer business Mr Peter Arina has stepped down from his plum post in a major restructuring communicated via email to all staff by Ceo Bob Collymore. Sylvia Mulinge who was previously General Manager, enterprise business will take over from Peter. Rita Okuthe who is currently director of marketing at Safaricom will fill in Sylvia's position of General Manager, Enterprise Business. Also exiting is director of customer management, ms Pauline Warui. Her place will be taken by the current retail network boss, Janet Atika. Safaricom's CEO Bob Collymore said that the changes were brought about by a need to reconnect afresh with the Customers. Mr Arina has worked at Safaricom for 11 years whereas Ms Warui has given 7 years service to the giant Telco. Collymore said the changes have been necessitated by an appreciation that Safaricom as a business had become disconnected to the customer needs at various levels. Collymore congratulated the two outgoing senior Managers for their exemplary services. These Changes Collymore said will prepare the Company for the heightened competitive environment.

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 It is very interesting to see that Safaricom is gender sensitive and is encouraging women to take top management jobs.

M-PESA TO FEEL THE HEAT FROM FACEBOOK PAYMENT SERVICE

A new payment service soon to be launched by Facebook is threatening to shake the very foundations of M-PESA in terms of payments options that it will offer Facebook users. A recent research by Standard Investment Bank revealed that the new payment service by Facebook might eat up on MPESA profits and future growth of the giant mobile money company. But Safaricom's Corporate Affairs Director Nzioka Waita in an interview strongly refuted this. Nzioka says that since the service will only be enabled to users in the US at first, the impact will not be felt by Kenyans who are the biggest consumers of MPESA services. MPESA has a current subscriber base of 20 million users while Facebook only reaches 4 million Kenyans.
Facebook announced that the new payment feature will be added to the messenger to allow people send money direct to each other. The service will be available on android and iOS messanger apps.
M-PESA currently has  network of over 40,000 agents across Kenyan who have helped grow the mobile money service in leaps and bounds. M-PESA was launched in Kenya in 2007 first offering only mobile money transfer services but has in recent years evolved into a full payments services offering C2B services and par

tnering with Major Banks to offer B2C services,.

How To Get a KCB MPESA account and borrow Cash Instantly

Now MPESA and KCB have launched a super wonderful mobile banking product dubbed MPESA KCB. This was launched on 10th of March 2015 and already it is proving to be a revolutionary product that might just unseat Mshwari from it's current dominance.

How does one open an account and borrow cash?

First dial *811# on your Safaricom line

You will be taken to a menu welcoming you to KCB MPESA account with an option of 1 accept terms and conditions or 2. dont accept . a link is provided( not to follow but read from the internet www.kcbbankgroup.com) majority of the customers might be using simple phones without internet so they may have to access the terms and conditions later.

once you accept the terms and conditions you will be sent a one time pin which you will be rquested to change to a preferred pin.

After that the full menu will be available for you and you can borrow as much as 5,000 shillings on day one!! just like that!!!

This product is bound to shake the whole mobile banking industry. Some years back when Safaricom introduced the OKOA JAHAZI product, according to the then CEO Michael Joseph they made a whooping 5 million shillings on day one just from word of mouth of subscribers.

Of course there is a high risk of defaulters but the pros supercede the cons by way too far. Depending on your MPESA transaction history KCB MPESA will decide whether to approve your loan request or reject it. Well Michael Joseph once reffered to Kenyans peculiar calling habits, will they be peculiar borrowing habits?

Safaricom's MPESA sign deal with KCB to boost mobile loans

Just slightly over two years since Safaricom partnered with CBA bank to launch M-shwari mobile based savings and loans service, they have entered into yet another such partnership this time with KCB.Mshwari was an instant success offering loans of up to Ksh 5,000 but later reviewed that to Ksh 8,000. The new KCB Mpesa mobile banking service offers loans at between four percent to 12 percent.

The Mobile credit service was launched  on 10th March 2015 and will offer customers loans of  between kes 50 and kes 1,000,000 payable in one to six months. Mobile banking has become a cut throat field with banks going for the jagular in this very competitive and lucrative arena. KCB has announced that transactions had moved from 10,000 daily to 100,000 transactions and transaction amounts hitting the 125 billion mark last year. Recently Bill gates lauded MPESA for bridging the gap between the haves and have nots, the banked and unbanked. 

CBA announced that it gives upto 50,000 loans a day. Currently due to that statistic its savings account stands at 153 billion and its loan account at 29 billion. CBA recently hit the 10 million mark in customer base.

In an interview with Citizen business Center presenter Terryanne Chebet, the CEOs of the two Corporates Bob Collymore Safaricom and Joshua Oigara who is group ceo KCB shied away from the all too common question of revenue share. However Bob did say that since KCB are taking the risk and Safaricom providing the technology, KCB was taking home the Lion share.
Lately banks have been running to MNOs for margers in mobile banking solutions that have brought about financial inclusion to the critical mass.
Safaricom has already been in three partnerships of Convenience. First with Equity bank when they first launched the MKESHO mobile banking service. Unfortunately it did not las long because the two parties did not agree on a revenue share model. Safaricom later shifted gear and partnered with CBA bank for the MSHWARI mobile banking service. This was an instance success. KCB MPESA is the latest Partnership that Safaricom has entered into, this time with KCB bank.