Kenya will join the rest of the world to mark the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD). On its’ part, Cofek will join the Communications Authority (CA) in marking the day in Mombasa.
The WCRD has been marked every March 15 since 1962 when the then President of the USA J.F Kennedy made the greatest speech calling for consumer rights. The United Nations has a charter on consumer rights on all its member nations including Kenya.
While Kenya pioneered the revolutionary mobile money transfer system, M-pesa, the household service by Safaricom PLC has not been without its’ fair of challenges for consumers.
Other than mobile money transfers dealing money through credit and saving cards has had security and safety of consumers rank as a key challenge.
On M-pesa, consumers who sent their funds to wrong recipients have to go through a lengthy process – including police – to have their reversals done especially in the many cases the stray recipients will fail to cooperate.
Fraudsters posing as Safaricom employees have equally used all manner of tricks to to empty the electronic wallets. Safety of some M-pesa agents has always been compromised whenever they fall prey to armed attackers.
In a nutshell, whether banks or M-pesa, consumers have been daily exposed to scams, frauds, phishing and data malpractices.
Consumers most affected by fraudsters are those from the low income segment – many of them who fall for the trap of having their money either doubled or tripled – and or giving away their security information.
Cofek uses the occasion of the WCRD to call upon the financial service providers to invest in awareness creation and furthering safety of their money transfer processes as well as the entire value chain
