By Virginia Mwangi
Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunication, has awarded the sixth winner of an apartment worth 7.8 million shillings in the ongoing Maisha Ni M-PESA Tu Promotion.
Joseph Kung’u Wanjiku from Riruta, Dagoretti is the newest homeowner in town after winning an apartment in Nairobi’s Kahawa West estate. Kung’u who is a clearing and forwarding agent, also works as a small-scale farmer in Gatundu.
The father of three girls also cares for an orphaned girl, who is currently pursuing higher education at Kiriri Women’s University of Science and Technology.
Kung’u uses Lipa na M-PESA to pay for his bills for both business purposes and personal use. This includes paying for KRA customs services, drivers’ services at the port, family upkeep and school fees for his children.
“I remember on the day I received a call that I had won a house, I was at home about to warm some porridge, watching some motivational video. At first, I thought the call was about my phone bill that was due. When I rechecked the number, I became nervous since it was the official Safaricom number. The news got me so thrilled that I literary jumped with joy. I never believed in promotions but now I can tell everyone that it is real and they should keep trying,” said an excited Kung’u.
Winners of the first five apartments are Juma Saidi, a maintenance manager in Cement Company from Coast, Benson Kilonzi, a jua kali artisan from Kitui, Jeniffer Kathure, a Khat trader from Meru, James Njagi, a metal artisan at Gikomba market and Eric Lindenberg, an interior designer who is a resident of Nairobi.
In addition to the six apartments, more than 490,000 M-PESA customers and over 5,000 agents have won instant prizes including cash and float amounts of 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 shillings.
“Transforming lives and creating a positive impact for our customers is what we strive to do at Safaricom. We are glad that we are able to reward our customers for their loyalty to our products. Through this promotion, we have seen the diversity of M-PESA through the variety of customers from all walks of life.” said Paul Kasimu, Director Resources, Safaricom.
The promotion seeks to reward the over 28.6 million M-PESA’s customers and 150,000 agents with 300 million shillings in prizes. Seven lucky customers and eight lucky agents stand to win an apartment and 1 million shillings in float respectively.