For a while now, there has been conversation about Safaricom launching M-Pesa for Kids. Well, M-Pesa Go is now live, and it’s exactly that. A financial product targeting teens and pre-teens aged 10 to 17 years. And if you’re wondering why such would exist, the first question I will ask you is this: when did you last touch real physical money?

If we ourselves have all gone cashless, it means parents and guardians must be having it difficult with young ones. How do you give them money, if needed? And how do you prepare them for the cashless world. Safaricom believes having a properly controlled financial product – like M-Pesa Go – is the way forward for kids.

What M-Pesa Go for Kids will be able to do:

Send and Receive Money
Buy Airtime and Bundles
Use Lipa na M-Pesa services – both till numbers and pay-bills
Access Customised M-Pesa Super App for Kids called “M-Pesa Go App”
Access full M-Pesa balances at KES 300,000 and transaction limits at KES 150,000.

Restrictions on M-Pesa Go for kids:

They cannot access Withdrawal of Money services
They cannot access digital loan products like MShwari
They cannot access Betting services
They cannot access Forex payments

How to sign up for M-Pesa Go:

If you have a kid aged 10-17 years, and you’ve already bought them a smartphone, you need to get them a SIM card. This will be registered with your ID, but with the kid’s name – as a subscriber.

You can also switch your other existing SIM cards to be used by your kids. This is provided they’re registered under your ID number, are active, and have no outstanding loan/savings balances.

If you already have a SIM card for your child, here’s how to sign them up for M-Pesa Go:

Visit https://safaricom.com/mpesa-go/onboarding
Enter your own Phone Number and ID
Select from the list of phone’s under your ID, the number that belongs to your Child
Enter Child’s Birth Certificate details
Upload a Copy of the Child’s birth certificate
Then dial *334# on your own number to add the kid’s number to your Junior Accounts profile
After that, you will need to teach your child how to use M-Pesa services if they don’t know it yet.

If the above process doesn’t suit you, a Safaricom Shop near you will help you. But you have to go there with valid identification documents as well as the child’s birth certificate.

After going through the above process, from the child’s phone, go to the Store, and download and sign in to the M-Pesa Go App.

As a parent or guardian, from your own M-Pesa app, you will have access to monitoring and tracking features, and parental control features such as setting transaction limits. You can also control your child’s use of M-Pesa through *334#.

Through *334#, Parents will be able to do enable and disable any services, add/remove any junior accounts, view Junior Accounts Info, query account balances, and view last 5 transactions.

Safaricom says that for all reversals requested incase of any errors when making payments, parents will need to give consent.

Parents can have a maximum of 4 M-Pesa Go accounts under their Junior Accounts listing. So, if you have more than 4 kids right now who you want to use M-Pesa Go, that will be a challenge.

“As M-PESA we are committed to empowering and transforming the lives of everyone, and in M-PESA Go, we are providing a revolutionary product designed for youngsters, but with oversight by parents or guardians. Leveraging the M-PESA Super App, we plan to introduce a financial literacy platform that will equip children with tools for managing money,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom PLC.