Beneficial Owners’ Information Update

As a regulated and licensed financial institution, we are required to identify and collect beneficial ownership information for all our business customers.

This update is required to ensure compliance with recently enacted regulations and to maintain the accuracy of beneficial ownership information.

Beneficial owners are individuals who ultimately own or control a legal entity. This includes individuals with a certain percentage of ownership or control.

The Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2023 (POCAMLA) , defines a beneficial owner as a person who ultimately owns or controls a customer or the person on whose behalf a transaction is being conducted, and any person who ultimately exercises effective control over a legal person or arrangement.

A beneficial owner of a company is a natural person who meets any of the following conditions with respect to the company:

• Holds at least ten percent (10%) of the issued shares in the company either directly or indirectly.
• Exercises at least ten percent (10%) of the voting rights in the company either directly or indirectly.
• Holds a right, directly or indirectly, to appoint or remove a director of the company; or
• Exercises significant influence or control, directly or indirectly over the company. Significant influence or control means participation in the finances and financial policies of a company without necessarily having full control over them.

Information will be collected by filling out and uploading required information & documentation through this secure portal (My Safaricom Partner Portal) accessible only to authorized individuals registered with our company. User guides on how to navigate the portal have been provided separately .

The information can only be submitted by:

• Organization authorized users with the role of “business Administrator” within the M-PESA G2 Portal (https://org.ke.m-pesa.com) who currently manage users accessing the M-PESA portal.
• Nominated number being a person authorized to manage organization funds through USSD.

Key details include particulars of the beneficial owners, personal identification details, Percentage Ownership, a copy of the BOF1 form among other details. A detailed list of requirements has been shared to your official company email address. Please contact us through any of the channels provided on item No. 13 to request for the list of requirements.

The portal can be accessed by clicking on the link here - My Safaricom Partner Portal

Yes, the portal is designed with robust security measures to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the submitted information.

• The Companies Act No. 17 of 2015, Section 93A, requires every company to keep a register of its beneficial owners and submit to the Registrar of Companies a copy of its register and communicate any amendments to the Registrar. This can be achieved by logging in to the Business registry platform hosted on the e-citizen website (eBusiness (ecitizen.go.ke) ).
• The Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2023 (POCAMLA Regulations), financial institutions are required to identify and verify beneficial ownership information for their business customers, which includes legal persons and legal arrangements. This entails determining the natural person(s) who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity. These measures are put in place to prevent misuse of legal entities for illicit financial activities.
• The AML/CFT (Amendment) Act, 2023, came into effect on September 1, 2023. It amended the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (POCAMLA) by imposing an obligation on all reporting institutions (financial institutions included) to:

1. Identify and verify any applicant seeking to enter a business relationship with them or carry out a transaction or series of transactions with them.
2. Identify and verify a customer whether permanent or occasional, by taking reasonable measures to establish the identity of that person by requiring the applicant or customer to produce an official record reasonably capable of establishing the true identity of the applicant or customer.
3. Identity and verify the identity of natural persons who are beneficial owners of legal persons or arrangements.

NO. The beneficial ownership information disclosed by companies to the Registrar of Companies or to Safaricom will not be available to the public. A company is only allowed to use or disclose beneficial ownership information if:

• communicating with the beneficial owner concerned,
• for compliance with the Regulations (this would include making the relevant filing at the Companies Registry),
• for compliance with a court order, and
• where the beneficial owner has consented to such use or disclosure in writing.

Failure to comply to the Companies Act shall attract a regulatory fine on the Company and each of its officers and may lead to de-registration of your company from the Registrar of Companies.

Failure to provide beneficial ownership information to Safaricom, may result in disruption in services.

The beneficial ownership process can be lodged through accessing the webpage https://brs.go.ke/ and creating an account on eCitizen for first time users or logging into an existing eCitizen account. Once logged in, the beneficial ownership information can be lodged –:

• During the initial registration of a company; or
• As an update of the BO register for existing companies; or
• As an amendment to the existing company’s BO information.

A detailed step by step guide can be accessed by clicking https://brs.ecitizen.go.ke/downloads/bo-manual-v1.pdf

Companies where the shareholder is a corporate body, beneficial ownership is held indirectly, and the company will be required to provide the beneficial owners’ particulars of that body corporate. Upon uploading the Beneficial ownership Form (BOF1), you will be required to upload the company ownership structure of your company indicating the relationship with the parent corporate body.

• For Lipa na M-PESA customers Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call +254722 002222.
• For Agents and Dealers Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or call line 300.
• For Money Remittance Partners Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Engage your respective account manager/ management team.

• Self-declaration form to be filled by non-BRS (Business Registry Services under the Company’s Act 2015) registered organizations.