Safaricom explains decision to link Sambaza and Okoa Jahazi services
A mobile phone user. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In 2009, mobile telecommunication company Safaricom launched a new service to grant PrePay subscribers access to airtime on credit and pay later.
This service has since been roundly praised as a ‘life saver’, especially in situations where one cannot immediately purchase airtime to make an important call.
Named Okoa Jahazi, the service advances PrePay subscribers airtime of Ksh10 to Ksh1000 at 10 percent interest rate. The subscribers pay back later under given terms and conditions.
Unfortunately, some users have not quite understood some of the conditions under which Okoa Jahazi is offered, particular when Sambaza, a service for sharing airtime and data resources, is involved.
Some subscribers recently complained that the telco company was deducting money from their M-Pesa accounts to settle outstanding debts of other users.
Some took to social media last week to lament, complaining that the service provider had deducted money from their M-Pesa accounts after they bought airtime for other subscribers.
One ‘Lovely Lovel J’ said she bought bundles for a friend, and that some money her friend owed on Okoa Jahazi was deducted without her knowledge.
She posted then: “Today a customer asks me to buy him bundles and I buy worth Ksh50, then you deduct Ksh275 from my M-Pesa account.”
In response, Safaricom wrote: “On the prompts that you receive in the process of buying the bundles, you are usually notified that the recipient has an Okoa Jahazi of a certain amount and advises you that you will be deducted the same.
It gives you the option to either go ahead and purchase and be deducted the whole amount, or to cancel. You will only be deducted the amount if you agree to go ahead with the purchase.”
The procedure involves a series of confirmations. For example, once a customer confirms they are willing to go ahead to purchase resources for others and also offset their Okoa Jahazi balance, they are presented with a second message directing them to their M-Pesa menu and requiring that they confirm the transaction by keying in their M-Pesa PIN.
Safaricom explains that the decision to link the Sambaza and Okoa Jahazi services came as a result of feedback from customers who regularly purchased resources for their loved ones. They would first have to send them airtime to offset outstanding Okoa Jahazi before making the next purchase.
The tediousness of this informed the decision by Safaricom to provide subscribers with the choice to offset Okoa Jahazi balances and purchase additional resources within one transaction.
