KENYANS SHOCKED AFTER SAFARICOM MADE HUGE CHANGES.

Safaricom on Friday, 10 June introduced changes limiting access to M-Pesa statements.

The telco informed users that they would no longer receive monthly M-Pesa statements sent via email. Going forward, M-Pesa statements will be accessible only on request.

The changes will take effect from July 1st, 2022.

Currently, M-Pesa monthly statements are shared to customer’s email addresses as PDF files. To view the data, however, customers must input their ID number.

Users can also request their M-Pesa statements for the past 3, 6 or 12 months at any time using the USSD code *334# and selecting ‘My Account’. In a message to customers, Safaricom noted that this channel would remain as the only way to access your M-Pesa statement.

The company has in recent months introduced a number of changes ostensibly to improve customer privacy and security, amid growing customer concerns on the state of their data.

It had announced plans earlier this year to hide names of customers making payments through their Lipa na M-Pesa platform, but this has since ran into headwinds. The changes were to take effect at the end of June but Safaricom has encountered technical hitches throwing the plans into dissaray.

Unlike at the moment when merchants can see customer details incuding their full registered name and phone number, Safaricom intends to display only the first name of the customer and a few digits of their phone number, effectively hiding their information.

Integrations have, however, proved a challenge forcing Safaricom back to the drawing board.

“As an update to our previous communication regarding data minimisation on the M-Pesa API, we will be making adjustments to accommodate several of our partners who are experiencing technical challenges integrating the minimised APIs,” the company informed merchants.

Sourced by Business today