Safaricom has today unveiled the fourth apartment winner in the ongoing Maisha Ni M-PESA Tu Promotion.
Benson Kilonzi, a small scale farmer and a jua kali artisan from the remote village of Ithumula, Kitui County received his keys to the KES 7.8 million apartment at a colourful event held Friday morning. The apartment is located in Nairobi’s Kahawa West estate, off Thika Road and the Eastern Bypass.
“I remember on the day I received a call that I had won a house. I was digging a pit latrine for one of my neighbours in Ithumula. I did not believe it at first but after some time the news sunk in when I confirmed that the number that had called was indeed the official Safaricom number. This is certainly a life-changing win for my entire family and me as the casual jobs I do cannot sufficiently feed my family nor build a descent house,” said Benson.
The 46-year-old father of two describes M-PESA as his bank. He borrows money from M-Shwari often to pay for his children school fee then repays the loans in instalments. His firstborn is in college and the second born is in form three. Those who support his children’s education also send him school fee via M-PESA. It does not stop there; he also receives payments for his masonry services through M-PESA as he finds it convenient.
“We launched the Maisha Ni M-PESA Tu promotion to recognise and reward our customers for their support and loyalty as the service has evolved. With seven apartments to be won, we are also ensuring that for our customers, we are making an impact even beyond financial services,” said Steve Okeyo, Director – Regional Sales and Operations, Safaricom.
Benson joins Jeniffer Kathure – a Khat trader from Meru County, James Njagi – a metal artisan at Gikomba market, and Eric Lindenberg – a South African designer resident in Nairobi as the first four of seven apartment winners in the ongoing promotion.
In addition to the four apartments, more than 360,000 M-PESA customers and agents have won instant prizes including cash and float amounts of KES 2,000, KES, 5,000 and KES 10,000.
The promotion began just over four weeks ago and seeks to reward M-PESA’s more than 28.6 million customers and 150,000 agents with KES 300 million in prizes. Seven lucky customers and eight lucky agents stand to win an apartment and KES 1 million in float respectively.