Telecommunications services provider Safaricom has introduced a new enhancement to M-Pesa that will enable customers to confirm the name of the intended recipient of funds, before completing an transaction.

In a media release Safaricom states that 'Hakikisha', which has been under pilot for the last month, will be rolled out in phases with a view to covering the entire 21.7 million M-Pesa customer base by the end of October.

It will ensure that customers no longer lose money to unintended recipients as a result of making a mistake while entering a number, the company adds.

"On any given day we receive an average of 12,000 calls from our M-Pesa customers seeking to have reversals done for transactions made to the wrong recipients. While a majority of these are resolved successfully, we appreciate that this is a major inconvenience for our customers," said Safaricom's Director of Financial Services, Betty Mwangi.

The pop-up feature will also apply when customers are making payments to Lipa Na M-Pesa (PayBill option), agent withdrawals, and will complement ongoing plans to boost the number of cashless transactions in the country. M-Pesa agents will also benefit from the service when depositing funds to customer numbers.

Mwangi said, "This is yet another testament to our commitment to ensure that we know our customers intimately and deliver to them the most relevant products- which is one of the objectives that we set out to achieve during this financial year. More initiatives are underway."

This new enhancement is as a result of improved system capability after migration of M-Pesa servers to Kenya earlier this year.

"The intended recipients' names will be queried against the official records registered by the customers and PayBill partners, ensuring that customers no longer send funds to the wrong numbers or organizations. However 'Hakikisha' will be suspended if no transaction is completed after five consecutive trials by typing 1 to STOP the transaction," according to Safaricom.

The telco says that the M-Pesa mobile money platform is used by over 13.9 million Kenyans at least once a month.