Safaricom says scanner rollout plan on course

Safaricom #ticker:SCOM says an ongoing drive to arm its agents with currency scanners that identify fake money will not be affected by the unveiling of new notes by Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) more than a week ago.

Safaricom Chief Corporate Security Officer Nicholas Mulila told Business Daily that the telco had already factored in the changes following a heads up from the banking regulator on the new notes last year.

“Before we started CBK had already told us of the plans to change the currency, only that the timelines had not been set, we had factored that in our plans of getting the scanners for all our agents,” Mr Mulila said.

Mr Mulila however noted that while the scanner roll-out will not be affected, the telco is monitoring the current batch to see if they may be need for re-configuration.

The company started rolling out the scanners last year in efforts to curb circulation of fake currency and stem money laundering through M-Pesa, the biggest mobile money platform in the country.

Safaricom says it has already rolled out 45,000 scanners to M-Pesa agents and targets to ensure all the agents acquire the devices by December in the project estimated at Sh40 million.

Safaricom has more than 156,000 mobile money agents according to its latest report. The firm controls 80 percent of the country’s mobile money market.

CBK gazetted the switch to new notes including Sh50, Sh100, Sh200 and Sh500 denominations on May 31.

The current 1,000 shilling note will be invalidated after 1st October.

Banks have already started configuring their automated teller machines (ATMs) and upgrading software to accommodate the new currencies following the CBK directive.