Remember the days when Safaricom did not allow MPESA reversal for airtime purchased through MPESA? It was that refusal that inspired the infamous meme featuring a shouting beer and the caption “When you buy airtime worth 50K” or something similar. Then Safaricom was forced to change – by M-PEPE – a Facebook Page that operates under the service tag “Convert Safaricom Airtime to Cash – Mpesa“. Asilimia is poised to offer such a motivation to Safaricom, a motivation that might force Safaricom to finally implement what I have been telling them all these years.
When Safaricom launched the requirement to add ID numbers for MPESA deposits, a requirement that was meant to prevent people from depositing money directly into the recipient’s account, I told them that the sender doesnāt have to pay a cent for sending money. Instead, the recipient could be charged a slightly higher fee to cater for the charges the sender could have incurred if he were to be charged. They haven’t listened, but I bet Asilimia will force them to listen.
Asilimia is an App that leverages on Lipa Na MPESA to allow you to send money to whoever via their App. You see Lipa Na MPESA is the tool operated by Safaricom through MPESA to allow buyers buy goods and services through a Lipa Na MPESA till number, and in so doing, the buyer doesn’t pay a dime for the transaction. Safaricom gets its money from the business where instead of the business receiving the entire amount sent to the till number, Safaricom automatically deducts 1% of the bill amount. These days I hear Safaricom charges them for withdrawal too at the rate they’d charge a regular MPESA user for withdrawal (explains why more and more businesses are preferring to use Pay Bill option instead of buy goods). Still, Lipa na MPESA allows one to send money (to the till number) for free; and that’s where Asilimia comes in.
What I imagine is that Asilimia has bought a Till number to which you send money, instead of sending that money directly to the recipient. Once Asilimia has received the money, it automatically forwards that money to the number of the intended recipient. What I am not sure is if sending money from a Till Number to a recepient is free, because that would explain why Asilimia is able to provide a free send Money service via MPESA.
Anyhow, from Google Play Store, Asilimia explains that the process works as follows:
- Download the app.
- Enter the amount of MPESA you want to send and select the recipient from your contacts (you can also choose multiple recipients).
- Type you MPESA pin to finalize the money transfer.
And that’s it. On value addition to Asilimia user, the following have been provided:
- SEND MPESA WITH āNo Transaction feeā itās up to 2X cheaper than high street banks and other MPESA apps.
- SEND MPESA TO MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS: MPESA transfer has never been simpler. Make multiple MPESA payments to multiple recipients with one push of a button.
- PROTECTED & SECURED FINANCIAL TRANSACTION: Just look us up on Google or Facebook to see our happy reviews. We are fully regulated, so your moneyās safe and secure with our 24*7 transaction monitoring.
- MPESA STATEMENT: Keep track of your M-PESA transactions history with our mobile app.
- AIRTIME: Buy airtime for you and your loved ones by selecting their number directly from your contacts.
- REFER & EARN: We know you love us, your friends will too. Earn from your each referral.
- BONGA: Jisort na points. Check your points balance, transfer and redeem them to buy airtime in our app.
