Safaricom Mali went live a while back. I wrote about it, and followed up months later with my experience. I later on realised that new sign ups had been limited, and only people who had earlier signed up could continue to use the product. There has been no official communication – at least none that I have received – on why this is the case. My guess has been that the product is in the Sandbox program by the Capital Markets Authority.
Anyway, recently if you use the M-Pesa Super App, you may have noticed a new look Mali Logo. And if you can access the platform, if you’re one of the early lucky adopters, you may have also noticed that the whole user interface has been updated. It is now very different, albeit more intuitive, but also looking like a complete ready to ship product.
This could mean that Safaricom is gearing up to open up the product to the public. Which means perhaps – if I am right about the Sandbox program – maybe the product is in the final stages, and ready for public rollout.
But what is Safaricom Mali?
Safaricom Mali is a product that allows M-Pesa customers to invest as little as KES 100 in Unit Trusts, while earning daily interest. To sign up, you need to be an active M-Pesa customer for at least 3 months, and I guess at least 18 years old. Once signed up, users are able to invest their money and track their investments and interest earned through the mini-app on the M-Pesa Super App Platform. They will also be able to withdraw their funds partially or fully to their M-Pesa account.
We since learnt that Safaricom Mali is a partnership between Safaricom, Genghis Capital, the fund manager, KCB Bank, the trustee, and SBM Bank, the custodian. There has been no further information as to whether this has changed.
You’re able to invest as much as possible on Mali as you want to, however, the usual M-Pesa daily transaction limits apply. You’re also able to withdraw from Mali at anytime
What are the new updates?
Previously, Mali used a Blue colour scheme. It’s now updated to Green. There’s now a logo, which is in the featured image of this article. The home page once you’re in the app is now also different focusing on your current balance, interest earned, and your yield performance for the past few weeks.
There’s now a dedicated investment performance page detailing interest earned per day for the last few weeks. There’s also now a My Account page showing your statement, option to opt out, and options to add next of kin, and email addresses.
When can we expect Mali to go public?
From the looks of things, even the FAQ page by Safaricom has been updated to show the new look. Which could mean, anytime now the product will be open to everyone to use. What we don’t know is what will change when the public accesses the product. Will the interest rates go lower? Will the service quality be affected? Let’s wait and see.
