As every M-Pesa user has become accustomed to, paying at a till number or through Paybill means the merchant on the other end gets more than just a payment alert. Your full name and phone number go along with it automatically, with no opt-out.
For most people, that went unnoticed, but for others, it opened the door to unsolicited calls, spam messages, and worse. That chapter is now coming to a close.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has approved Safaricom to introduce phone number masking on M-Pesa, according to the Business Daily.
With this system, merchants will still get payment notifications, but they will see a partially hidden number, like 0722XXXXXX, instead of your full phone number. Payments will work the same way as before; only the amount of personal information shared changes.
This brings M-Pesa in line with Kenya’s Data Protection Act 2019, which requires that personal data collected during transactions be limited to what is strictly necessary.
Sharing a customer’s phone number every time they buy groceries or pay a utility bill has long been seen as excessive. A number collected today can become a marketing list or a tool for fraud tomorrow. Masking prevents this data from leaking at the source.
This is not entirely new territory for Safaricom. Its Pochi la Biashara service had already implemented hiding customer numbers from sellers. CBK’s latest approval simply extends that same standard of privacy across the wider M-Pesa ecosystem, closing a gap that had existed for years.
For businesses, the adjustment is largely procedural. The familiar practice of asking a customer to “show the confirmation message” is being phased out. Both Safaricom and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner are actively discouraging it.
Instead, merchants are expected to verify payments through their own M-Pesa business apps, USSD codes such as *334#, or integrated point-of-sale systems.
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The transaction still goes through; only this time merchants will simply have to confirm it on their own devices instead of asking to see your phone.
Small traders will benefit from this, even if they don’t realize it. Many have been collecting customer information, like names and phone numbers, with each transaction without knowing that the law requires them to handle it carefully under the Data Protection Act.
Masking this data removes that risk quietly in the background without them having to do anything.
