South African wins M-Pesa apartment

Safaricom Customer Operations Director Janet Ateka (left) with winner Erick Lindenberg. Photo | Courtesy

What you need to know:

  • Mr Lindenberg says he moved to Kenya over six years ago.
  • He described winning the house as "a pleasant surprise".
  • James Njagi, an artisan at Gikomba Market, was the first person to win an apartment under the promotion.

A South African residing in Kenya has become the second person to win an apartment in the ongoing Safaricom #ticker:SCOM Maisha Ni M-Pesa Tu promotion.

Eric Lindenberg, 49, is the second winner of the Sh7.8 million apartment in a draw held on Tuesday.

The interior design consultant, who lives with his wife and two children in Nairobi, says he moved to Kenya just over six years ago.

He described winning the house as "a pleasant surprise".

“I found the country undergoing exciting times amidst fast growth and a lot of development, which saw me make the decision to join my family here in Kenya,” he said.

“From my first days, I have come to prefer M-Pesa for most of my transactions as I find it convenient to use my phone when paying for fuel, shopping, making payments to other people and for booking the SGR on regular family trips to the Coast.”

James Njagi, an artisan at Gikomba Market, was the first person to win an apartment under the promotion.

The houses are located in Nairobi’s Kahawa West estate, off Thika Road and the Eastern Bypass.

“We are happy to see that the promotion winners reflect the diversity of M-PESA, which is a testament that it indeed is a mobile money service that brings the entire Kenyan society together,” said Janet Atika, Safaricom director customer operations.

She said the promotion will continue for the next five weeks during which the company will seek to reward more customers for their loyalty.

In addition to the two apartment winners, more than 190,000 M-PESA customers and 1,900 agents have won instant cash prizes and float including of Sh2,000, Sh5,000 and Sh10,000.

The promotion began about four weeks ago and seeks to reward M-PESA’s more than 28.6 million customers and 150,000 agents with Sh300 million in prizes.

Seven lucky customers and eight lucky agents stand to win an apartment and Sh1 million in float respectively.

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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.