There are a ton of ways customers can use to load airtime to their lines. Mobile money services come to mind and serve as one of the easiest ways to do so because they eliminate the need for you to go to the shop to buy a card, scratch it, enter the digits, maybe skip a digit, enter the number again and authenticate the process.
Admittedly, the latter is the most popular process because not a lot of people have cash in their mobile money wallets – and those who do, mainly if they have Airtel Kenya lines or know a friend or family who does can now do so using a WhatsApp bot that has made the entire exercise seamless.
Before we look into it, it should be noted that we highlighted this Paybill approach that does not cost anything for M-PESA top-ups to an Airtel SIM for credit under KES 100. That’s its main advantage because I can count two or three paybill numbers that cost KES 2 or more just to replenish your phone with talk time.
Now, back to the WhatsApp bot named JAZALINK that is the star of this short story: it works just like any other bot, and this is how you do it:
- You must have a phone
- That phone should be a smartphone for the purposes of this procedure
- Your device must also have WhatsApp, and there are high chances you have the app.
- Now, click on this direct link to the bot (or you can copy it for later use: https://wa.me/+254203892444?text=Hi).
- You will see a familiar chat interface
- Type anything. Let’s say it’s the world’s most popular salutation, Hi.
- The bot will shoot up a text telling you what to do but we are still going to talk about it.
- Enter the Airtel number you want to top up, followed by hash # sign and then the amount as follows: +254735******#100
- Hit send.
10. The device will call up your SIM tool kit. Authenticate the top-up with your M-PESA Pin. The end.
Two things to note: if your WhatsApp is linked to another number that is not Safaricom (maybe it is Telkom or Airtel), then after step 8, the bot will ask you to enter the M-PESA number; else, the process will proceed as described.
In case you are asking, the paybill being used here is 263263. It is only that a bot is faster – and you can go back to the chat to initiate top-ups.
