[kictanet] Is it Consumer Safety or Competition between Safaricom & Equity?

[Bernard Kioko]

So I have been watching and reading the debate on thin-sim and the drama got
me thinking about something..

 

Almost every Kenyan bank today is running a USSD mobile banking service.
When you dial that number (eg *111#) ..and you enter your PIN to transact...
your PIN is transported between your phone and your bank in an open text
(clear text aka no encryption) that can be read easily. I am sure both
Safaricom and Equity know this for a fact. With this understanding, is the
thin-sim card discussion really about the security for consumer or is it
market-share politics? Can the two companies not find a secure work around
if it really is about security? Imagine if CCK / Central Bank had refused
MPESA citing consumer security because they could tell of the many mpesa
fraudsters reported daily.

 

Further, can CCK not "order" safaricom to open their sim card (subject to
commercial terms) for more SimToolkit applications in which case Equity
Mobile Money services would sit right next to MPESA menu on that same sim
card (and perhaps there would have been no need for a new MVNO - ok so am
being too ambitious!).

 

Isn't the big deal Equity's desire to enter the Mobile Money market and for
those following closely, you know the difference between "M-Shwari" and the
now almost dead "M-Kesho"

 

What are your thoughts?

 


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