Maseno University graduate Evans Kibet, has come up with a way to curb mobile money reversal.
The Earth and Physical Planning graduate explained how he was motivated to come up with the invention after falling prey to fraudsters for a long time.
He stated that he would ferry customers from one place to another and they would insist on paying using mobile money only for them to reverse back the money to their accounts.
That is how Kibet decided to use his bodaboda and transformed it into a money agent.
“Most of my customers have been frauding me using mobile money. With my invention, they will no longer do that because they will have to carry out a direct transaction,” he explained.
He further added how convenient the invention was as he would ride around looking for customers.
“This is not like other agents where they sit and wait for customers, for this I am the one who comes to the customers,” he added.
Kibet noted how the bodaboda operation had been affected by the tough economy hence making him shift to operating as a money agent.
“This is a flexible job because I still operate as a bodaboda operator and when there are no customers I work as a money agent,” he uttered.
In a video seen by Kenyans.co.ke, Kibet was parking his bodaboda on the roadside and then planting a temporary sign board to indicate that he was operating as a mobile money agent,
His fellow riders lauded him for coming to their rescue as they were also victims of mobile money fraud.
“We are happy because this has come from one of us and it will help us a lot,” one of the riders stated.
“Some customers make sure that we have witnessed that they have sent money to us but after leaving they quickly reverse back the money. They also switch off their phones so it becomes impossible to reach them,” another rider noted.
Kibet's innovation came after the infamous Mulot sim swap syndicate, which recently wiped clean an MP's bank account went viral.
Kenyans embraced mobile money for payment of goods and services as a mitigation measure against COVID-19 after the pandemic hit the country.
This was a way of reducing the physical exchange of currency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This however exposed Kenyans to fraudsters who have gone to the extent of conning them while purchasing cheap tokens.
