In what comes as a sigh of relief for traders and and matatu sector players, Safaricom PLC has introduced an approval feature for M-Pesa money reversals.

With the new approval feature, the recipient will immediately receive an automated call from Safaricom in the event the sender cancels an M-Pesa payment transaction.

In the call, s/he will be required to approve or decline the action as the cash is held by Safaricom. If the recipient approves, the cash will be released back to the sender. If s/he declines, both the sender and recipient will have to prove their cases.

“Within a few seconds, you will be notified that the transaction reversal has been started, and an update will be shared within two hours. Safaricom will at this point begin engaging the second party, for the reversal,” Safaricom says on its website.

Fraudulent M-Pesa reversals

There has been an increase in cases of fraudulent M-Pesa reversals especially after the advent of COVID-19 in the country. Kenyans were urged to embrace cashless transactions as a measure of curbing the spread of the Coronavirus.

Traders and matatu conductors aka ‘donda’ have fallen prey of customers paying using M-Pesa, only for them to reverse the transactions.

It is not uncommon to enter a Public Service Vehicle with a sticker ‘Hakuna M-Pesa’, to mean that they do not accept payment via the platform, for them not to fall prey to these fraudsters