Kenyan users of M-PESA, a mobile money transfer service, encountered significant disruptions and delays starting from around 11:00 am on a recent Tuesday. The extensive outage impacted transactions on the Safaricom M-PESA App and the SIM Toolkit, causing concerns among the users and businesses that rely heavily on the service.
The unexpected glitch left millions of users stranded and unable to conduct financial transactions. Attempts to send money were met with notifications signifying that M-PESA was either experiencing delays or undergoing maintenance. In response to the situation, banks also informed their customers about the delays, urging patience until the resolution of the issue.
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As Safaricom’s largest revenue earner, M-PESA processes billions of payments annually, making it a critical part of daily financial activities across multiple African countries, including Kenya. The service’s unexpected downtime, therefore, had a significant impact, particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya that depend on M-PESA to receive payments from customers.
The Aftermath of the Outage
Although the issue persisted for approximately two hours, Safaricom PLC, the company behind M-PESA, had not released any official statement regarding the cause or specifics of the outage by the time of press. The service was eventually restored, and users were able to resume their transactions. The unanticipated maintenance drew criticism from Kenyans on social media who expressed concerns about the safety of their money and questioned the timing of the maintenance.
Despite the brief disruption, the M-PESA service is now fully functional. As Safaricom recently gained complete control of M-PESA from Vodafone International Holdings BV, following a share purchase agreement in April 2023, the firm will be keen to avoid similar glitches in the future, given the service’s crucial role in Kenya’s economy.
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