Safaricom has introduced M-PESA Jumbe, a payment-notification feature that enables merchants using Lipa na M-PESA and Pochi la Biashara to nominate up to 50 additional users to receive payment alerts.
The alerts contain the transaction reference, amount, business name, payment number, date and time, and replace the customer’s full name and phone number with a JumbeID formed from the first letters of the customer’s first and last names and the final two digits of the phone number, for example NK_74 for a customer named Nancy Kamau.
Safaricom says the alerts do not disclose the account owner’s balance, PIN, statement or transaction history, and the owner’s main number continues to receive the full standard M-PESA notification for Till and Paybill accounts.
Merchants nominate recipients through the M-PESA Jumbe menu by dialing *234#, each nominee receives an invitation that must be accepted before alerts begin, and the service works via SMS and USSD so basic phones can be used.
Each Till or Paybill number can have up to 50 recipients; suspended alerts still count toward the limit, but owners can remove people when they leave the business, and staff can pause or opt out of alerts through the USSD menu, requiring re-nomination and fresh consent to resume.
Safaricom says the feature is intended to reduce delays when employees must contact owners to confirm payments and to improve privacy by providing customers with a separate proof-of-payment SMS that omits balance, full name and full phone number.
The service does not guarantee SMS delivery time, so staff may have to wait for a delayed message before they can confirm a payment.
