During these harsh times of curfew and social distancing, one can get stranded due to lack of airtime for their favorite network.
A strategy and innovation tech firm Kibo Capital Group Limited through its Tsenda innovation says it has a solution in the digital economy that discourages physical contacts and social gatherings as the fight against the virus intensifies.
“Although we are faced with global pandemic that is threatening our existence, this might as well be an opportunity to rethink the whole model of how we do business around technology including how we make payments and issue receipts,” said Mr Evans Okech, the director of Kibo Capital Group Ltd.
Most people fear touching surfaces and scartch cards is one of the many ways the germs from covid-19 can spread.
Tsenda, from Kibo Capital Group Limited is a cheaper, faster and easier way to buy airtime for any network in Kenya.
The firm uses a toll-free short code 40512. To begin, one must first have a Safaricom and money on MPESA.
For Airtel the company says one can just send instruction for example
Number#Amount
e.g: A254733XXXX76#50
For Telkom
e.g: T25477XXXXX76#50
Safaricom has many ways to purchase airtime, however if one doesn’t want to pass through the long process, one can just send the amount of airtime they want to the toll-free short code in a message format and wait for prompt to enter their PIN.
The solution is also available when one wants to send a friend some airtime, bought through MPESA. This is done through using Phone Number followed by hash (#) and amount sent as text to the number that doesn’t charge (toll-free) 40512.
The other two benefits of Tsenda is that it issues a digital receipt that is universally verifiable and accepted, this means most people who seek to reconcile receipts (scratch cards) with their offices so that they can be reimbursed their money, will find this innovation beneficial.
Tsenda’s parent company supports social distancing and avoiding handshakes in the war against coronavirus.
Kenyans are advised to buy airtime online in order to maintain effective social distance.
Tsenda also uses the same technology for prepaid electricity token purchases.
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