Safaricom announces four-hour M-Pesa disruption

Telco giant Safaricom has issued a public notice informing its customers of planned maintenance that will disrupt mobile money transfer service M-Pesa.

In a notice, the telco said that M-Pesa, will undergo a scheduled maintenance exercise from midnight. This will affect all M-Pesa services between Saturday 11.59pm and 4am. 

“We are constantly investing and innovating M-Pesa to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our customers as well as continue to support our partners in their business ambitions. To support this continued transformation, we regularly undertake enhancements and maintenance of our systems from time to time,” reads the notice.

“In this regard, our M-Pesa services shall be undergoing planned maintenance on Saturday, November 6, 2021, starting from 2359 hours to Sunday 0400 hrs. During the maintenance, all M-Pesa services including airtime purchase shall be temporarily unavailable.”

At the same time, Safaricom apologised for any inconvenience the planned exercise will cause to customers.

“The timing of this maintenance activity has been planned to result in the least inconvenience to our customers. We apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused and thank you for your continued support,” it said. 

The telco clarified that the enhancements and maintenance of the systems are aimed at boosting transformation as part of investments and innovations.

“We are constantly investing and innovating M-Pesa to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our customers as well as continue to support our partners in their business ambitions,” the firm added.

Kenyans have been left wondering over the frequency in maintenance, with speculation rife that the increased number of transactions could be constraining the system.

The platform has over 40 million users and processes over Sh60 billion a day. 

Fears also abound that such outages can compromise private user data, in addition to the loss of revenue for firms and individuals which can run into millions of shillings.

Safaricom has been operating M-Pesa for 14 years, a period that has ushered in a new period of money transactions.

 In April last year, Safaricom and Vodacom completed the acquisition of the M-Pesa brand, product development and support services from Vodafone through a newly-created joint venture.

The duo said the transaction, first announced in 2019, would accelerate the platform’s growth in Africa by giving both Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the brand, product development and support services as well as the opportunity to expand into new African markets.