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{
    "id": 1095781,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1095781/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 293,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "It is obviously very clear that since March 2007 when I launched M-Pesa, it revolutionised life in terms of access to financial services as we know them. Looking at that date around December 2006 or sometime before that, Safaricom worked on the sambaza program where you could buy and send credit to someone else. People saw this as a form of currency and started selling credit to one another. It became internationalised and people in Kenya using this platform would buy credit, send it to someone in London and they would receive and cash it. As a result of this, they said that instead of people selling credit to another, why not convert it into a platform where people could send money to one another. I was in the National Treasury then when they went to the CBK and were given a run around, of suspicious like, that was money laundering and it needed to be controlled. I remember they come to my office sometimes just around December saying that they were frustrated. They had come up with a technology of helping every person in Kenya send and receive money in a safe way and would also help with matters security. If you may remember, it was around the same time when, if you were going to Mombasa to clear your vehicle, people got into the bus knowing they had money. Then, somewhere along the way, you would be given some samosas, doze and lose all your money and so, carrying cash was high risk. So, how would they help in terms of people not having to carry money around? When I talked to the officials in CBK they raised the same issues and said that they needed regulations and could not approve this. In the meantime, we were stifling innovation and so, I took the risk, granted them permission to launch the product and regulations would follow. The only thing being the limitation, as Members may recall for a long time, the total amount you could send was Kshs35,000. It was pegged to $500 at the exchange rate of Kshs70. This is because $500 was what you could send in all other platforms including money exchange bureaus. Therefore, because of taking that risk to encourage innovation, we launched M-Pesa in March and the rest is history. It revolutionised money transfer services on an international basis. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}