We wake up one morning in the late years of the 2000s decade and we are served with the best thing to ever come from this side of the globe. Mobile Money transfer.
There have been claims that it is the best thing that has happened in Kenya and Africa in the last few years. You would not disagree with the claims at all if you have ever waited a week for a cheque to mature or travel 100 kilometers to the nearest town or center to receive cash send to you. Worse still is when there was an emergency in your rural home and the best you could do was send money through the post office for the money to be delivered in two weeks.
Tracking
So the savior in mobile money transfer came in and changed lives a great deal. But how often do we track our MPESA transactions? For most users, it all ends with several digit and character code we receive to confirm the transaction. The accounting for the money has been so long neglected that people have ended up overspending and actually redirecting money meant for something else to a totally different thing.
I recently did a freelance project and the plan was that I’d use part of the money to bid for another project. The money was sent to me through my MPESA account. And before I knew it, I had bought enough airtime (out of convenience) for myself and a few other people, bought more electricity units (I didn’t need to) and also had send money to a friend I bet with on the result of a soccer match. My team lost.
At the end of the day, I could not bid for any other project because I have disciplined my bank account ‘not to do miscellaneous expenditure’ and therefore could not take bidding money from it. Why is it hard to discipline my mobile money account?
Recently, I attended a product launch @ilabAfrica where an innovator had developed an android application to help track MPESA transactions. The system keeps record of all money received and money send and generates reports at the user’s request.
I thought that was a brilliant idea and it would help individuals to be more disciplined when using their mobile money account. And yet there are those of us who will not be able to install the application on our phones for various reasons.
Discipline
The basic ideal situation here would follow these simple steps every time someone authorizes a transaction on their mobile money account.
i) Always know the balance in your account before you carry out a transaction.
ii) Ask the vital question; do I need to make this transaction?
iii) Make note of business money send to your personal mobile money account.
iv) Be aware and/or keep record of all transactions that take place
Be sure this is going to help you use that virtual money wisely.