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Mobile app launched to track Mpesa transactions

A mobile application that enables one to account for their mobile money transfer transactions has been launched.

The app, dubbed Zebumob is downloadable on android phones and is currently applicable to Mpesa users. It is able to identify Mpesa messages in a user’s phone and develops a clear categorization of funds received and spent, and the specific areas each receipt or payment has been made.

“A user is able to conveniently find out where their Mpesa money is going and calculate payments made to them via the platform,” says Muthuu Kagio the app’s developer.

The app recognizes Mpesa messages coming into a user’s phone as withdrawals, receipts, money sent, airtime purchases, bill payments among others, and appropriately assigns them to the appropriate transaction type as designed by the user. These can range from rent, entertainment, transport, airtime purchases, payments or receipts from suppliers among others; and the user is able to know how much money is spent on each expenditure item, or received from different people.

The app is able to tally each transaction type to get totals per day, week, monthly and annually. Users can then log on to the website www.zebumob.com to print or export their transactions into an excel spreadsheet for further analysis.

“With this information the user is able to create a viable budget,” says Mr Kagio. All Mpesa transactions are stored in the app and the user can access it through their phone, without need of going to the mobile service provider to enquire about their statement.

“Small businesses that use Mpesa can track their transactions and keep their income and expense report on their phones, which makes it easy to use and refer to,” said Mr Kagio. The app is available on Google play store. A new user only needs to search for Zebumob and download.

“I decided to develop the app after I realized that I was using Mpesa for a lot of my business and daily transactions, and I needed good records that were readily available,” says Mr Kagio. “In addition I wanted to find out where my Mpesa expenses go to; like the people I send out money to and for what purposes, as well as those who send me money.”

The app developer has signed a trademark agreement with Mpesa. He says Zebumob app is a value addition tool for the mobile transfer service. For now the app is in use only applicable for Mpesa users. It is also accessible to Vodacom users in Tanzania and South Africa. Mr Kagio says they will be introducing the app to other mobile transfer services as well in future.

So far the app has over 9,100 users, with the developer targeting to reach 50,000 users in the next one year. The application is free, with only small business users who want to get a detailed report and analysis of their transactions paying a fee of sh100 per month for the service.

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Mr Kagio says he will continue expanding the app. “We are working on a more flexible spreadsheet tool which will make it easier for small businesses to analyze their transactions,” he said. “We are also working on a new mobile advertisement platform that will use click per call metrics. So that advertiser only pay per call derived from the ad.

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