Sunday, February 13, 2011
Mpesa (Mobile Money Transfer)
Ciku has recently finished varsity and is now working at the largest mobile operator in Kenya (Safaricom) her wow brand is a mobile money transfer product from Safaricom called (MPESA) which means "mobile money". It is a Kenyan brand which since its launch in 2007 MPESA has changed the lives of Kenyans! It allows a consumer to buy electronic funds an send electronic funds to any mobile phone user in the country....must admit this is my choice of truly a wow brand! MPESA provides consumers with a cheap, fast and secure way of sending and receiving money without the hussle of going to a bank or ATM. In december 2010 alone there were over 20million transactions conducted in the month....to put it into perspective the population in Kenya is 40million!! Consumers can pay for groceries through Mpesa, pay school fees, buy tickets, pay utility bills the list is endless. Safaricom is part of Vodafone and is now made it possible for Kenyans living in the UK to send money home through MPESA.....this is truly a WOW brand!
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Imd i agree. In Kenya a WOW brand has to be easy to use, within reach and affordable. Thats what mpesa has achieved in just 4 years. With over 10million registered subscribers who move cash transactions in hundreds of millions of kenya shillings daily. Now thats a success right there.
ReplyDeleteKlaire
Easy to use. Convenient, to send money to upcountry and especially where it is connected to the bank
ReplyDeleteA truly Kenyan brand that leaves the word Kenya on many mobile phone enthusiasts around the world.
It used to be cheap but expensive now.
It has too many instances of down time. Mpesa agents without float is very annoying.
I hate the increased fraud on MPESA.
If only I can pay for things online with it.
Ken said;
ReplyDeleteConvenience comes first to my mind when I think of Mpesa. I believe that the costs of usage are currently high but will drop to acceptable levels with increased competition from upcoming mobile money systems and proposed cross system capabilities and tariff reviews; I can easily send money to my grandma without causing her the hustle to go to the nearest town centre to look for a banking hall to withdraw and execute purchases; she transacts for her daily commodities on phone using the money that I have sent her and gets the goods delivered to her doorstep!
I cannot over emphasise how easy Mpesa has made my life, from paying bills to paying for stuff, at my convenience! I can pay for my cable and water at midnight from the comfort of my home, no trying to make it to the respective offices by a particular time over the weekend because I was unable to make time during the week and oh, horror of horrors, I have been disconnected. I check my bills on my phone, and pay via phone, ensuring that my life and my house, runs smoothly. I can send money to people I haven’t seen in ages (and probably don’t want to see) for their fundraisings, or whatever needs that they might have. I can buy airtime for family members in the middle of the night for whatever “emergency” calls that they might have, the possibilities are endless. I mean, you can even buy clothes and shoes with Mpesa, which gives a whole new spin on impulse shopping. Seen some shoes that you ‘just have to have’ but have no cash? No worries, the seller has Mpesa and as soon as he gets that text, the shoes are yours, no cash changes hands, and it’s all on phone. Forgot that you were having guests over for dinner? Not a problem, Mpesa the caterer and prepare to be complimented on your ‘organizational skills’!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMpesa is my WOW Brand. In this day and age such a service has enabled many people to go about their business by use of a phone and without moving from one location to another. Paying bills and other services has become easy and it is hard to default on such payments these days. Mpesa is a WOW brand that came just at the right time - it is a mobile bank!!
ReplyDeleteWell, Mpesa gets into the WOW brands because it has not only opened up new frontiers for the telecoms but has super exceeded on delivering value addition to the common man without any hassle irrespective of social class! It has a regional footprint and it comes in handy for most - businessmen, students, parents and a lot more. I am in Uganda but Mpesa has come in handy on so many occasions in real time sense at quite affordable rates. Rogers.
ReplyDeleteMpesa makes it to the podium all the time for me. With my parents upcountry and being a telephone farmer, I time and again had to line up in banking halls to send money.
ReplyDeleteMy life has never been easier since Mpesa entered the fray - no queues, no late payments, no lost deals, then best of all I do not need a third party to "pass on" the funds I have sent to the intended recepient. Such third parties which included banks would always levy a steep price, in the form of interest for the latter and "lost" funds for the former, before funds were passed to the recepient.
Mpesa has brought the rich and poor on to one platform in the money transfer arena.