M-Pesa outage expected as Safaricom migrates platform

Users of Safaricom’s mobile money transfer service M-Pesa are set to experience periodic system interruptions over the next three weeks.

This as Safaricom conducts yet another upgrade of the popular M-Pesa service as the mobile operator seeks to secure the system as well as introduce new services to the platform.

M-Pesa services will be unavailable between 1 A.M and 3 A.M on Friday with a number of services such as bank transfers also set to suffer in the coming weeks.

International Money transfer, KCB M-Pesa, M-Shwari and M-Kesho services will be unavailable on 5th July 2017 for a period of two hours, from 1.00 A.M. to 3.00 AM.

In mid-July, Safaricom will conduct the changeover to the new platform, resulting in a 12 hour outage.

Safaricom chief executive officer Bob Collymore said the upgrade is necessary to continue offering services to the over 26 million users.

“Ten years ago, we began the journey of M-Pesa by focusing on our customers’ need to send money home. Since then, we have experienced tremendous growth as the platform has grown to provide even more value to the ecosystem. This upgrade paves the way for the next phase of M-Pesa and will enable the service deliver even more value for our customers and partners,” Mr Collymore said.

Safaricom has already announced plans to expand M-Pesa services across the African continent.

The move comes after its main shareholder Vodafone announced plans to sell its shares to Vodacom enabling its African expansion.

Vodafone currently offers M-Pesa services in 10 countries including Albania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India.

M-Pesa has become a key revenue generator for Safaricom, contributing Sh55 billion in revenue in the financial year ended March 31.

Safaricom is currently trialing a payment card and near field communication (NFC) systems linked to users M-Pesa account to speed up transactions.

In April Safaricom suffered a major system outage that affected calls, SMS and M-Pesa services.

The migration of the M-Pesa platform is expected to improve the systems security.