Safaricom Saturday launched a modified M-Pesa application that allows minors to perform transactions in a controlled manner.
The application allows minors to have access to financial services with minimal parental supervision so as to sharpen their entrepreneurial skills.
Communication and Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has said that the new M-Pesa platform will allow children under the age of eighteen to transact in a regulated manner.
Owalo said the ministry is working towards implementing strategies that will protect digital fiber-optic cables and infrastructure while at the same time reviewing policies that protect children from Cyber-bullying.
He said the young ones should not just be exposed to digital technology and opportunities, they must also be protected from cyber abuse noting that laws and policies to guide them through today’s murky online world are already in place.
“The world is rolling on the wheels of the digital technology. The Digital Technology is at once the engine, the fuel, the wheels and the driver taking the global community into the future,” he said.
“If you are not yet on board, you’ll be left behind. Our children must be intentionally but protectively brought on board.”
He said that policies to protect digital infrastructure will be put in place to ensure reduced vandalism.
The CS challenged Safaricom to think not just about getting the young to be passengers in their vessels and urged them instead to encourage children to dare to dream, and to dare to test their dreams.
“Entities like Safaricom can develop digital laboratories for the youth, as part of their corporate social responsibility. Through talent hunting mechanisms, they can encourage our young people set out early on their voyages of digital discoveries and innovation. ”
“As a Ministry, we are keen to accelerate, in our country, the gains of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, while also delivering on our promise to enable wananchi, and especially the youth, to use online platforms for entertainment, information and business. We will do this by increasing and fast-tracking connectivity across the country, and I invite service providers like Safaricom to walk with us on this journey,” he said.