M-PESA users will no longer see full transaction details for Paybill, Till, and Buy Goods payments, following a new privacy measure by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
The CBK has authorized Safaricom to introduce phone number masking across M-PESA transactions.
In its National Payments Strategy 2022–2025, the CBK outlined a framework to protect digital payment data, aiming to strengthen safeguards around how payment information is collected, stored, and shared. “The focus will be on enhancing safeguards on how payment data is collected, stored, and shared. The overall objective will be to ensure payments data is used safely and securely to enhance a user’s privacy, reducing fraud and facilitating positive elements such as use of data to enhance security, innovation, access to new services, and customer-centricity approaches,” the strategy read.
With CBK approval, Safaricom will mask phone numbers during mobile money transactions, allowing users to send money without revealing their full number, even to tills and paybills.
Merchants will still receive payment notifications, but customers’ complete phone numbers will appear in a masked format, such as 0722XXXXXX, instead of being fully visible.
The payment process itself will stay the same; the update only reduces how much personal information travels with each transaction.
Safaricom had already introduced similar privacy measures in its Pochi la Biashara service, where users could view transaction details without revealing phone numbers.
With CBK’s approval, this protection now applies to all M-PESA merchant transactions.
Merchants will verify payments using M-PESA business apps, USSD codes, or integrated point-of-sale systems, rather than relying on full phone numbers.
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