Safaricom has announced a new feature on its mobile money wallet M-Pesa that will see phone numbers on M-Pesa transactions masked to enhance customer privacy.
Speaking during a media briefing on Wednesday, March 18, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said the feature is set for rollout on March 24, 2026.
According to Mr. Ndegwa, customers’ full phone numbers will no longer be visible on M-Pesa transaction notifications; instead, they will be shown in a masked format, for example, 0723***000.
“To enhance customer privacy, M-PESA Send Money notifications will now display a partially masked phone number instead of the full number,” he stated.
Additionally, the feature will ensure that only two names of the sender are displayed for identification.
Customers will have the option to request to verify the sender’s identity by sending the transaction message to 334 before the lapse of 24 hours after the transaction is made.
Once an identification request is made, the sender will receive an SMS asking them to share their full name and mobile number. They will have the option to accept or decline the request.
The update aims to minimize exposure of customers’ personal data in transactions, including Till, PayBill, and person-to-person money transfer services.
Safaricom stated that data privacy remains a major concern in the rapidly expanding digital ecosystem.
With about 37 million daily person-to-person transactions and 14.1 million daily active person-to-person customers, the telco underscored the need for responsible handling of customer data.
“As digital transactions grow, protecting customer information is more important than ever. Data minimization ensures that only the necessary information is shared or displayed, reducing exposure to misuse while maintaining a seamless customer experience,” Safaricom stated.
Over the past five years, the telco has been keen on data minimization on some of its key products, including Pochi La Biashara and Lipa na M-Pesa services.
In 2020, Safaricom reduced the customer information that merchants could view, while in 2021 it minimized the customer information that the front staff and support staff could access.
The journey continued in 2022 when the telco started masking phone numbers on M-Pesa statements, reducing exposure of personal details across customer touchpoints.
In 2023/24, Safaricom implemented API-level data minimisation, ensuring partners only receive the minimum data required to complete a service
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