Safaricom Plc has responded to concerns raised by customers not receiving M-Pesa confirmation messages or notifications from the mobile network service provider.
In a statement on Friday, February 9, Safaricom said the issue is affecting customers with Android phones who are using third party SMS apps.
To address the issue, the company advised its customers to open their SMS app and check the Spam and Blocked folder.
Then find a Safaricom and M-PESA message and unblock it. All subsequent messages will go to the main inbox after completing the steps.
Additionally, customers using Android smartphones can select the default SMS app as it does not have a spam folder.
“We have noted that some of our customers are not receiving messages from Safaricom and/or M-PESA,” Safaricom explained.
“This issue is affecting customers with Android phones who are using third party SMS apps.”
Several customers had on Thursday raised concerns questioning why M-Pesa and Safaricom notifications messages were flagged as spam in their phones.
The confirmation messages sent to customers came with spam icon that usually warns users about unsolicited or unwanted messages.
“Why are M-PESA messages Currently being flagged as SPAM,” an X user named Allano posted on his account.
Also Read: How Safaricom Collects and Uses Your Personal Information
Some users also complained about the inconveniences caused by the failure to receive confirmation messages, especially for customers using the mobile money platform to pay for various services and goods.
Safaricom, in its response, assured that its team was working to address the issue and apologized for the inconveniences.
“The issue is currently being addressed. In the meantime, select the M-PESA SMS received in the spam box and mark it as ‘Not Spam’. Apologies for the inconveniences caused,” Safaricom noted in response to the concerns.
Also Read: Safaricom Announces M-PESA PayBill Delays
Safaricom raises questions over frequent disruptions
The development came against a background of frequent interruptions of the mobile money system in the recent past.
In January, delays rocked the system with customers seeking to complete transactions forced to wait for longer than usual periods.
On January 23, for example, Safaricom announced that it was experiencing a recurring service intermittency that affected some Pay Bill payments.
This, in turn affected other services including Kenyans seeking to buy prepaid electricity tokens via M-Pesa.
The frequent downtimes have since raised concerns among Kenyans who largely depend on the platform for business and in their day-to-day activities.
Members of Parliament have since summoned the company’s officials to answer to questions about the frequent disruptions.
