Kenya’s giant network operator Safaricom has signed a deal with a UK-based technology company Neural Technologies that will see the latter develop and implement a fraud management system for M-Pesa mobile money service.
“We regularly review the functionality of our fraud systems so that we can safeguard our clients transactions and so be worthy of the trust they have vested on us,” said Safaricom’s chief Bob Collymore.
The system, known as MinotaurTM Fraud Management Solution, incorporates a powerful case management environment that facilitates the process of case investigation and also enables proactive fraud identification via an innovative data mining functionality.
Over the time, fraudsters have targeted both the customers and agents on the platform something that has always raised concern among the users and the Kenya government. The funds transferred via M-Pesa are equal to 25 percent of the Kenya’s GDP, showing mobile money’s extensive growth calling for measures to curb the rising fraud cases.
Speaking at the East Africa Com hosted at Nairobi’s Safari Park Hotel earlier this year, some experts were of the view that Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-money Laundering measures including taking down customer details and passport photos be implemented.
Others included taking down customer’s copy of identification documents like National ID, passport, or driver’s license on registration to ensure easy tracking and identification of fraudsters in case reports are submitted
Safaricom might have decided to guard itself from future fraudulent cases reported on its M-Pesa platform, and the deal with Neural Technologies could help build customer’s confidence in the platform.
Safaricom launched its M-Pesa services back in March 2007, and since then, the service has grown tremendously, with its active users standing at 14.7M, and close to 30,000 agents countrywide, according to 2011/2012 financial year report.
