Safaricom Awards Third Winner in Lipa Na M-PESA Promotion

Nairobi, Dec. 30, 2014… Safaricom has announced the third winner of a house valued at Sh14 million in its ongoing Lipa Na M-PESA Shinda A Home competition.

John Kimeu Mwambua, a store keeper at Utwala Supermarkets in Embakasi, emerged the third winner of the fully furnished house after he took a M-Shwari loan for just Sh100.

The 22 year old who currently lives at his work premises, has no formal bank account and says he uses M-Shwari to save and earn interest on the money deposited in his M-PESA account.

Speaking during the handover ceremony for the winners of the third round of its “Lipa Na M-PESA Shinda A Home” subscriber competition, Claire Munene, Head of Department, Customer Value Management, Safaricom, said that services such as M-Shwari aimed to create a culture of savings and financial accountability among an increasing pool of users that use their mobile phones as their sole financial tool.  

“The transformative power of the mobile phone as an enabler for these kind of initiatives is unprecedented. M-Shwari is helping to provide a savings culture which is a key component for development at both the micro and macro-economic level” said Ms. Munene.

With net deposits in excess of Sh4.1 billion and loan amounts totaling over Sh1.6 billion, new M-Shwari users are signing up at a rate of 300,000 new users every month, with a less than 2% loan default rate.

In addition to giving away a fully furnished house every week during the eight week Lipa Na M-PESA Shinda A Home promotion, consumers will also win Sh32 million in cash and 16 million worth of airtime.

Lipa Na M-PESA merchants also stand a chance to win a pick-up vehicle every two weeks in the competition. In addition, merchants stand to win Sh40 million in cash over the duration of the competition.

Nairobi, Dec. 30, 2014… Safaricom has announced the third winner of a house valued at Sh14 million in its ongoing Lipa Na M-PESA Shinda A Home competition.

John Kimeu Mwambua, a store keeper at Utwala Supermarkets in Embakasi, emerged the third winner of the fully furnished house after he took a M-Shwari loan for just Sh100.

The 22 year old who currently lives at his work premises, has no formal bank account and says he uses M-Shwari to save and earn interest on the money deposited in his M-PESA account.

Speaking during the handover ceremony for the winners of the third round of its “Lipa Na M-PESA Shinda A Home” subscriber competition, Claire Munene, Head of Department, Customer Value Management, Safaricom, said that services such as M-Shwari aimed to create a culture of savings and financial accountability among an increasing pool of users that use their mobile phones as their sole financial tool.  

“The transformative power of the mobile phone as an enabler for these kind of initiatives is unprecedented. M-Shwari is helping to provide a savings culture which is a key component for development at both the micro and macro-economic level” said Ms. Munene.

With net deposits in excess of Sh4.1 billion and loan amounts totaling over Sh1.6 billion, new M-Shwari users are signing up at a rate of 300,000 new users every month, with a less than 2% loan default rate.

In addition to giving away a fully furnished house every week during the eight week Lipa Na M-PESA Shinda A Home promotion, consumers will also win Sh32 million in cash and 16 million worth of airtime.

Lipa Na M-PESA merchants also stand a chance to win a pick-up vehicle every two weeks in the competition. In addition, merchants stand to win Sh40 million in cash over the duration of the competition.