M-Pesa Go has been reintroduced by Safaricom. The product is meant for M-Pesa users in their teens and pre-teens. Thus, Safaricom seeks to encourage 10 to 17-year-olds to adopt the digital wallet for their financial transactions. The product had been launched last year in November.
As such,under-18s using the product can fulfil transactions common among M-Pesa users. This includes sending money, paying for goods and services as well as purchasing airtime. However, some features have been disabled or are not yet available.
M-Pesa Go is set as a product to give young users financial independence. On the other hand, the product allows parents to have financial control over how a child spends money.
It allows a parent to determine where a child can spend by enabling and disabling services. Secondly, payment to gambling and betting organizations has been disabled. Lastly, it gives a parent and the child visibility on what and where the child spends money.
Safaricom says this product will teach children to be financially savvy. This is because of the ability to manage and track pocket money. Furthermore, it comes at a time Safaricom plans to roll out M-Pesa standing orders. This will allow young Kenyans to pay recurring bill easily.
Accessing M-Pesa Go
To sign up, parents/guardians can use the self-onboarding portal to register an already existing SIM card on Safaricom’s website. Parents can also sign up physically by visiting any Safaricom shop. The documents required are valid identification and an original/copy of the child’s birth certificate.
Once registered, the product is accessible via the normal transaction channels. These are the M-PESA APP, Sim tool kit (STK), and the M-Pesa USSD (*334#).
A child can access Safaricom Customer Care on Line 100 or Line 200 for GSM-related issues and Line 234 for all M-PESA-related issues on their account. However, for all requests about the account e.g. reversal, sim swaps, etc., the parent must give consent.
