Vodacom awards 10 Million to grand winner in M-Pesa promotion

Vodacom Tanzania Corporate Communications Manager, Rukia Mtingwa (left), M-PESA Expert Ms, Reenu Verma and the representative of the Gaming Board of Tanzania, Mr Abdallah Hemed follow proceedings during the draw to pick monthly winner of TShs 10 million of the M-PESA Transfer & Win promotion whereby a Geita resident, Mr Denis Kaesha emerged the winner.

Tanzania's leading mobile phone company, Vodacom has presented a cash prize of TShs 10 million to the winner of the ongoing MPESA promotion which targets users of the service during a brief ceremony at the company Headquarters at Mlimani City in Dar es Salaam.

Dennis Kaesha, an accountant from Geita was all smiles as he received news of winning the prize from Vodacom Corporate Communications Manager, Rukia Mtingwa, bringing to a close the M-Pesa Transfer and Win campaign which kicked off in March.

"I am very thrilled with this win. It's unbelievable," said a seemingly pleasantly surprised Dennis.

Dennis now joins Peter Kilalo, a traffic police officer from Dar and Revocatus Mkama, a car mechanic from Mwanza who emerged winners of the monthly grand draws in March and April, respectively.

In her remarks during the conversation with the winner, Rukia urged Vodacom customers to continue using the service, adding that the win was testament that the telecoms operators was increasingly reaching to its customers with innovative products that do not only make life pleasurable but also supports their day to day lives by addressing their unique needs.

The M-Pesa Transact and Win promotion allowed subscribers to win TShs 50,000 daily and a grand monthly prize of TShs 10 million every time they sent money. To date, Vodacom has awarded over TShs 480 million in daily winnings to 9000 customers, and TShs 30 million in monthly prizes.

"I am pleased to tell you that you are the winner of the MPESA transact and win promotion during the month of May. We are very proud of you and will make every effort to present the money to you soon so that it can help make a difference in your life and your entire family," Rukia announced.

He said Vodacom was keen to use the MPESA platform which continues to experience exponential growth to power the lives of the Tanzanian people, irrespective of their economic standing.

The campaign is intended to not only excite users of the MPESA service and attract more but also to build the customers and general public's trust in its safety, reliability, speed and stability.

Increasingly, MPESA is becoming popular in Tanzania as more people prefer it for; payment of bills, money transfer both locally and across the borders and as a safe haven for money, especially for people on transit.

He said that while the campaign sought to increase the use of the service in the market, the company was also doing everything possible to ensure it remained strong, intact, safer, reliable and more importantly, affordable to all across the country.

The MPESA service was first introduced into the TZ market in April, 2008. Over the years, more service providers have included it in its financial management systems. These include; utility companies such as LUKU, DAWASCO, and DSTV. MPESA is also used to; pay for local flights on Precision Air, pay school fees as well as examination fees to NECTA, deposit and withdraw money through CRDB Bank, to name just a few.