Safaricom’s M-PESA, a mobile money platform, is currently experiencing operational issues that are affecting its paybill services. Despite an earlier announcement that the outage had been resolved, Safaricom issued a subsequent notification stating the connectivity issues had returned.
As of reporting time, Safaricom has not disclosed the cause of the outage but has assured users that its technical team is working on fixing the problem. Users also received a notice via social media stating that M-PESA was undergoing scheduled maintenance.
This incident is not the first time M-PESA has experienced downtime. It also had a service outage for over two hours in early January 2024 and in July 2023.
These outages recurrently disrupt platform functionalities including the sending and receiving of money, services linked to banks, and other payment services. Following the downtime, local banks communicated that they were unable to process transactions through M-PESA channels.
Users trying to use the platform are presented with error messages and are advised to wait ten minutes before attempting to make a transaction again.
The recent outage on Safaricom’s M-PESA platform has deterred thousands of Kenyans from using their mobile devices for transactions, underlining the potential challenges of digital payment methods. Unfortunately, other alternative products do not possess the same market dominance as M-PESA, limiting the choices for Kenyans.
Other similar products available in Kenya include Airtel Money and Telkom Kenya’s T-Kash. However, M-PESA has been the market leader, holding a staggering 96.5% market share in 2023, trailed by Airtel Money and T-Kash. As of March 2023, M-PESA had facilitated 26 billion transactions.
In October 2023, Safaricom fully acquired M-PESA. The service is one of Kenya’s most popular payment options, boasting a presence in several East African countries. It facilitates money transfers across different platforms and serves over 50 million customers, including over 30 million in Kenya.
M-PESA has ambitious plans to expand globally, following its partnership with Amazon in February 2023. In addition, thanks to a partnership with Visa in December 2023, M-PESA started offering tap-to-pay card payments to its customers.
