The next morning Amina arrived at the KopaPapo service desk with Salma, four screenshots, and a sheet showing the dates of the SIM swap. She did not allow Salma to speak to Musa alone, but neither did she make Salma sit outside like a witness in her own case. At the counter, Musa looked at both women before opening the dispute file.
“Ms Amina, we can confirm that the first loan reference has a consent event,” Musa said. “For the second loan, the log request is still under technical review.”
“I want the session metadata,” Amina said.
Musa pushed a tablet toward them. “Complete metadata cannot be released at the counter.”
“I brought the complaint reference. I asked for the first loan to be separated from the second. I do not want Salma’s full account. I want the device signature, date, and session that opened the second request.”
Salma folded her arms. “You told me the system had mixed them.”
Musa did not answer her directly. “We will issue an approved summary.”
“Your summary is what made me appear to be a repayment party,” Amina said. “If you write that there was a different device without showing timestamps, you will return me to the same summary.”
Musa looked at the dispute number. “What do you want done now?”
“Place a preservation hold on the logs. Keep my request narrow: authorization for the second loan. The first loan can continue under the consent review, but I will not allow it to be joined to the second loan before the session trail is examined.”
Salma looked at Amina. “You said the first loan will continue?”
“Yes. This is not about making you look innocent.”
Musa opened the technical-review form. He began typing, but wrote ‘customer alleges unauthorized borrowing’ in the summary field. Amina stopped him.
“Do not write unauthorized borrowing for everything. I said I am challenging the second loan. For the first loan, I entered my OTP, even though I did not understand the role I had been given.”
Musa deleted the words. “That is why we need one classification.”
“And I am why I cannot accept a simple classification.”
Salma took out her phone and displayed a screenshot saved in the cloud. A date appeared in the corner, but the image had been cropped before the account name could be seen. Musa said she had to prove the image had not been edited. Salma became angry.
“My phone was stolen. The screenshot is all I have left.”
“That is why the session log matters,” Amina said. “This picture does not have to solve everything.”
Musa asked them to wait ten minutes. He left with the tablet and went into an inner room. Amina and Salma remained on plastic chairs beneath a sign that read, **Never give your OTP to anyone**. Salma read it and laughed without amusement.
“If that sign had been on my screen, I would have read it,” Salma said.
“Maybe. But even with the sign, the company still has to show the role presented to the person.”
“Are you protecting me or protecting yourself?”
“I am looking for the difference.”
When Musa returned, he did not have the complete log. He carried a sheet with three lines: first consent event, second loan request, and SIM update. It did not show the device model, but it did show a different session marker.
“The technical team has not released the device identifier yet,” he said. “But the timestamps do not match. The first consent was linked to a session using the device on Amina’s profile. The second request came from another session.”
Salma leaned forward. “I told you.”
“That does not prove you requested it,” Musa said. “It only proves the session was not the first one.”
Amina took the sheet. “Put that sentence in the dispute record.”
Musa wrote it down. “We will make the preservation request.”
“And the complaint status?”
“It will remain open. Collections will not close the entire account, but reminders may continue for the part that has not been challenged.”
“That is the cost of refusing a shortcut?” Salma asked.
“Yes,” Amina said. “We are fighting for the correct responsibility, not for two quiet days.”
They left the service desk with two copies of the request. Amina placed one in her file and gave the other to Salma. Outside, Salma received a supplier’s call and turned away. Amina did not listen to the whole conversation; she only heard Salma say, “It still hasn’t arrived.”
At the bus station, Amina opened an email from HR. The report still showed two entries. Instead of hiding it, she forwarded it to Halima together with the preservation reference, removing Salma’s screenshots that had nothing to do with the company.
“You really decided to send it?” Salma asked.
“I sent what concerns my name. You cannot ask me to protect your secrets by leaving my records looking false.”
Salma gripped the copy of the request. “If the technical team says the second loan came from my phone, what will you say?”
“I will say that truth.”
“And if they say you were connected because of the first consent?”
“I will pay the part that is made clear and verified. I will not accept an unrelated part because people want one report to be simple.”
Salma smiled bitterly. “You said you would pay.”
“I said I would be responsible for what is mine. That is not the same as carrying everything.”
They sat on a bench for a while, each holding her copy. Amina photographed the request without exposing Salma’s data, then wrote in her notebook that a preservation hold had been requested and Musa had agreed to keep the complaint open. Salma emailed her the screenshots and the date of the SIM report. They had not repaired their friendship; they had only created a line the company would have to follow.
Buses passed, blowing dust over their shoes. When Salma stood, she said, “Our friendship was easy before these numbers.”
“It was easy because I did not ask you questions.”
Salma left without embracing her and without asking forgiveness. Amina remained, staring at the technical-review email and knowing that the new report would add a question even Salma could not hide.
She closed her notebook, saved the request and the tea receipt in one file, and refused to let the memory remain only on her phone, where someone else could delete it.
Before they reached the station exit, she sent Musa a short letter naming the complaint date. She did not send Salma’s pictures or other people’s transactions. She requested preservation of the logs because the dispute was still active, not because she had already decided who was at fault. Salma read the copy and added the SIM-change date in the margin.
Amina did not erase or soften the sentence.
Salma nodded. “The device used for the second loan had appeared on Salma’s account two months before Amina had ever opened the app.”
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