Airtel Malawi welcomes mandatory Simcard registration: As Karonga man wins K1m in ‘Kuufira’ promo

Airtel Malawi has welcomed the mandatory simcard registration exercise announced by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra), saying the development will help in curbing fraud by some unscrupulous people, who have been ripping the company’s customers through fake promotions.

Airtel Money marketing manager Tione Kafumbu  made the observation on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, when the company conducted the seventh draw for the ongoing Kuufira Summer Bonanza, which has seen 35 customers  winning K200,000 daily cash prizes and seven others winning the K1 million weekly prizes.

“This is a very welcome development. Some unscrupulous people have been calling our customers telling them they have won prizes and asking them to pay money to redeem the prizes. Once the registration exercise is implemented, such practices will be minimized as it will be easy to trace the culprits.

“As Airtel, we have been doing registration of customers through our Know Your Customer (KYC) campaign and we are happy that government has introduced the mandatory registration exercise,” said Kafumbu.

During the seventh draw, a clinical officer from Karonga district hospital Mbaliti Mbukwa won the K1 million prize for week seven with five other lucky customers claiming the K200,000 daily cash prizes.

“Mbukwa was calm, when  Airtel’s Madalitso Matemba called him to break the good news: “I am happy but I need to go to Airtel to verify the information,” he said, apparently not sure if this was true.

It was announced during the draw that last week’s K1 million winner, who could not be reached on his mobile phone had been identified. He is Evance Mailosi from Nchalo and according to Kafumbu, the money had already been sent to his Airtel money account.

However, owner of the number 0993 587 329, which won the K1 million prize for the second draw has reportedly not been traced. Kafumbu said they would conduct another draw for the prize next week following the expiry of the one month waiting period recommended by the Malawi Gaming Board.