Unsurprisingly, we expect mobile money agents to remain operational and continue catering to our needs. The agents are central to our economy and to enabling the nation to turn to cashless transactions, but as consumers what can we do to ensure that agents are also protected?

For the week, East Africa’s largest Mobile Network Operator, Safaricom, has supported the uptake of cashless transactions by waiving charges on person-to-person transfers for transactions worth KSh 1,000 and below for the next three months. While transactions below KSh 100 have enjoyed a similar waiver for a longer period, transactions ranging between Ksh 100 and Ksh 1,000 have attracted a transaction fee ranging between KSh 11 and KSh 15. In talks with the Central Bank of Kenya, this waiver has been targeted to reduce the need for physical cash transfers from one person to another as a means of stemming the spread of COVID-19. Similarly, banks in the Kenyan economy have followed suit in a similar fashion to waive bank to mobile money wallet and vice versa transfer charges.

Nearly all bank accounts in Kenya have deposits of less than KSh 1 million, Central Bank of Kenya revealed that 99.3 percent of bank accounts in Kenya have deposits of less than KSh 1 million. Only 0.7 percent of accounts have deposits of more than KSh 1 million. 97 percent of bank accounts in Kenya have less than KSh 100,000. The CBK data also offers a sneak peek at Kenya’s growing income inequality problem where wealth remains concentrated in the hands of a small segment of the population.

More cash needs to be digitized, especially by low income earners and Kenyans at the bottom of the pyramid, and will likely be done through agents.

“Mobile money agents have 7x more reach than ATMs and 20x more reach than bank branches”

As we appreciate and rely on mobile money agents, the question remains, how can we protect our local agents in these uncertain times? Below I share four ideas on how I believe we can achieve this:

1.Wash your hands thoroughly before giving your agent your physical cash.

While there are several measures recommended by the World Health Organization in protecting yourself from COVID-19 and curbing the spread to other people. One of the most important one is regular and safe hand hygiene. Below is a step-by-step guide to good hand-washing practices:

i. The process should take between 20 to 30 seconds.

ii. First, wet your hand in their entirety with water.

iii. Apply soap and ensure the hands are entirely covered.

iv. Rub your palms thoroughly together.

v. Put your right palm over your left hands, interlace the fingers taking time on each finger. Do the same with the left palm over your right hand.

vi. Interlace your fingers with palm to palm.

vii. Put the back of your fingers facing the opposing palm, and don’t forget the nails too.

viii. Use rotational rubbing for both thumbs.

ix. Rotational rubbing, backwards and forwards with clasped fingers of right hand in left palm and vice versa.

x. Rinse your hands thoroughly with water.

xi. Once dry, your hands are safe.

2.Keep safe distance as your agent caters to your deposit or withdrawal needs.

Maintain a reasonable distance from your agent by increasing the physical space. Staying at least six feet away from your agent lessens your chances of catching or spreading COVID-19. We all are working our best to ensure that we are adequately prepared to end this pandemic, so maintain your social distance at all times.

3.Don’t touch the agent’s booth, wood frame or metal bars.

More and more people are staying indoors to avoid contact with either people or surfaces potentially infected by COVID-19. But since we have established that we need to visit our local agents to get access to digital finance, avoid at all cost touching the agent’s booth, wood frame, or metal bars. There is a good reason for this, a study has shown that COVID-19 can last on copper for up to four hours, on cardboard for up to twenty-four hours, and on steel and plastic for up to seventy-two hours. Clearly, touching any surface unnecessarily should be avoided at all cost.

4.Don’t take longer than necessary at the agent shop.

Avoiding crowds is a sure way to maintain social distancing. As different people also rely on your preferred agent for deposit and withdrawal needs, taking long periods at your agent’s shop will only lead to more people crowding at that location. Once the agent has completed your transaction and now that you are well-equipped with digital finance, go home and order for your groceries from the comfort of your home.

Let us follow the simple guidelines as this will aid in stemming the spread of COVID-19 and we will for sure win the fight together.

Paul Muriithi — Chief Information Officer at PesaKit.

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Mobile money agents provide an essential service

Mobile money agents have been instrumental in enabling populations to convert physical money to digital value particularly in emerging markets. For more than a decade, agents have been at the center of mobile money services onboarding, training, and supporting end consumers on a daily basis. Agents are the face of mobile money services, and as such, they are the first point of contact between providers and the end consumers. Resultantly, more people have been included in the digital financial economy improving livelihoods and catalyzing entrepreneurship for groups that have otherwise been excluded. The GSMA reports that with more than one billion mobile money accounts globally, more women are accessing and using financial services, low-income households are accessing essential utility services and payment remittances, and groups such as smallholder farmers are getting paid more safely, quickly, and conveniently.

For many governments, the effectiveness of agents is key to undertaking measures to support the populations through cash payments and for the populations to turn to digital finance. Governments across emerging markets have identified CICO agents as essential service providers increasing the daily cash limits to enable high-value transactions as a means of supporting the uptake of digital finance as witnessed in Kenya.

But mobile money agents are vulnerable to infection and unwittingly spreading the virus

The World Bank reports that 66% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to traditional financial services such as a bank account. Consequently, a large section of the population rely on the services of mobile money agents for CICO needs, more so, as people turn to digital finance. Even though the importance of agents has categorically been felt across the globe, with the current crisis, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and governments have done little to educate them on best practices on handling physical money, hygiene, and social distancing at the shops. Agents are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 due to their very nature of physically handling money which essentially brings them into contact with banknotes that have been potentially handled by thousands of people, some of whom may have the virus without their knowledge. The World Health Organization has flagged cash transfers from one person to another as one of the ways that COVID-19 could easily spread rapidly.

“The importance of agents in emerging markets has also meant that with the spread of COVID-19, their services thrust them to become frontline workers as governments seek mechanisms to stem the spread of the virus.”

While agents shops do present a solution to supporting government initiatives such as the call by the Kenyan Government to turn to digital finance as a mechanism to curb the spread of COVID-19, they may also pose a potential danger to further worsening the crisis due to the flow of physical money from one person to another.

Our Responses to COVID-19

PesaKit recognizes the fundamental importance of mobile money agents to the economy and the livelihoods of the population in Kenya. The continuity of mobile money agency businesses, not only means continued generation of income for the more than 200,000 agents in Kenya, but also a means through which the Kenyan economy will recover once the crisis has passed.

In the past month, Kenyan agent businesses have adversely felt the impacts of COVID-19 with a majority of our agents reporting in a recent survey a 70% decrease in revenue, decreased footfall, and increased challenges in managing liquidity at their shops. Agents feel the biggest risk they face is getting infected with COVID-19 even as they incur costs to put in safety measures best as they can.

As the Kenyan society continually adapts to the rising COVID-19 numbers, agents have been forced to close their shops earlier than usual to beat the 7 pm to 5 am curfew and they have had to adapt to reduced banking hours affecting their income drastically, especially in the case of urban agents. If the situation continues as is, the agents we surveyed fear having to go out of business as the lockdown will become untenable for their shops.

As a means to support agent businesses and ensure that they are well prepared to protect themselves and their customers from the spread of the virus, we have come up with the following responses:

COVID-19 Safety & Misinformation Campaign

According to the Kenyan government through the Ministry of Health, Kenya has 582 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 26 fatalities as of May 06, 2020. While the government has taken initiatives such as the 7 pm-5 am curfew and the lockdown of high-risk regions such as the Nairobi Metropolitan area to stem the spread of the virus, mobile money agents remain at risk of infection as they continually serve millions of Kenyans seeking to cash in or cash out at their shops.

PesaKit Safety Campaign educates mobile money agents on best practices at their shop to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while combating misinformation through the following themes:

1. Best hygiene practices
2. Best practices in handling physical cash
3. Best practices in hand washing
4. Social distancing
5. Symptoms
6. Safety and prevention

By providing information and preparation, the PesaKit Safety Campaign seeks to support mobile money agents’ business continuity, prevent the spread of COVID-19 at an agent location, and ensure that Kenyans continually access digital finance at safe and secure locations.

PesaKit Float Exchange

Mobile money agents frequently visit bank outlets to purchase float and rebalance liquidity at their shops. With the spread of COVID-19, reduced banking hours, and the need to maintain social distance to curb the spread of the virus, agents are unable to maintain efficiency in managing their till and effectively losing valuable customers in a time when CICO transactions have drastically declined.

PesaKit Float Exchange solves this problem by enabling M-Pesa agents to access e-float through digitized PesaKit agents in select towns across Kenya. An M-Pesa agent registers with PesaKit, provides their agency details, and PesaKit loads the agent’s till whenever requested. Through our digitized agents, we are able to securely and remotely enable the rebalancing of liquidity at an agent’s shop without the need to go to the bank.

PesaKit Float Exchange is a free, secure, time-saving, and affordable liquidity rebalancing mechanism helping agents meet their customers’ CICO needs while curbing the spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19 Insurance Cover

While mobile money agents may have not yet have come into contact with COVID-19 at the moment, each day the number of cases in Kenya rises thereby increasing their risk of infection particularly those serving areas deemed as epicenters, such as Nairobi. A high number of agents do not hold a health insurance policy to act as a safety net in the case they are quarantined, hospitalized, or incapacitated from opening their shops, on which their livelihoods depend.

PesaKit COVID-19 insurance cover is a 12-month hospitalization insurance cover that provides agents with an income safety net whilst testing positive, quarantining, or being admitted to a hospital due to COVID-19. Our agents can access the health insurance policies for as low as Ksh 1,000 (US$10) per annum, protecting themselves and their loved ones.

AtPesaKit, we are continually innovating solutions to support and empower mobile money agents during the crisis to cope and ensure their businesses stay open, such that our agents are well-prepared for any eventualities, and that our communities are able to access essential CICO services at safe locations.

During the pandemic and beyond, mobile money agents will continue to be hubs for essential and value-added services and Pesakit will be there to bolster their survival and growth.

Follow our developments by visiting our COVID-19 information website at covid19.pesakit.co.ke

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I had to go to seven (7) different mpesa agents to complete a deposit of Ksh 25,000! Imagine the frustration each time the agent told me “sina float” or “float haitoshi”. Heading back home after 40 minutes of anxiety and frustration got me thinking; How can I solve this systematic issue? Given my personal frustration, I set out to explore how agent networks operate.

My motivation was to try eliminate the anxiety I went through to help a loved one and knowing I didn’t want to go through that s#!t again! If I put my design and tech skills to work, then no one else should experience the same.

My mission, now PesaKit’s mission is to empower every mobile money agent on the planet to achieve and deliver more digital financial services to the underbanked.

Agents without float are perennially frustrating to mobile money providers and their customers alike.

After a year of private beta, I am excited to launch our public beta on July 22nd to ease liquidity (cash & float) pressures for the next 10,000 agents.

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