M-Pesa Agents to Use Photos to Identify Customers Withdrawing or Depositing Money

M-Pesa agents will soon start using photos to identify customers withdrawing or depositing money in a new move to curb fraud.

The country's leading telecommunication company, Safaricom is said to have distributed about 250,000 preprogrammed smartphones to all M-Pesa agents to be used in registrations of new smart cards.

 The agents will be conducting all transactions through the company issued mobile phones allowing them to validate National Identity (ID) card details and the customer transacting money.

According to Safaricom, the special phones are linked to the Registrar of Persons database to help verify data as it is fed into the system.

The process involves capturing faces of SIM card owners and storing digital copies of the same which will be retrieved during M-Pesa transactions.

"Using an application in the phone, the agent keys in the customer’s registration details then takes a photo of the documents and the person registering," Safaricom’s Corporate Affairs Director Stephen Chege told Business Daily.

He added:"The big win from this process is the photo evidence of the person registering. This will eliminate use of stolen personal identification documentation to commit fraud.

"The law requires telecoms firms (or their appointed agents) to register SIM card owners after noting down their “full name, identity card number, date of birth, gender, physical and postal address."

Safaricom has 28.1 million registered customers, 19 million active M-Pesa users and 135,500 agents across the country.

 


 


 


 


 

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