By
Benjamin Muriuki
Published on: September 19, 2025 01:53 (EAT)
Audio By Vocalize
M-Pesa services will be
temporarily unavailable for three hours on Monday, September 22, 2025, as Safaricom conducts a scheduled system upgrade.
In a notice
issued on Friday, Safaricom PLC announced that the maintenance exercise will
take place from 12:30
AM to 3:30 AM, during which all M-Pesa services, including
airtime purchases, will be inaccessible.
The
telecommunications company stated that the exercise is part of its commitment
to providing secure, reliable, and worry-free financial services to millions of
customers across Kenya.
“For 18 years,
M-Pesa has continued to transform lives across Kenya, connecting customers to
opportunities every day. To support this and meet our promise to offer
always-on, safe, secure, and worry-free financial products and services, we
will be conducting a scheduled system upgrade,” the statement read in part.
According to Safaricom, the upgrade is the most significant since 2015, and it introduces Fintech 2.0, a next-generation
core platform designed to strengthen resilience, expand capacity, and unlock
advanced, AI-driven innovation.
“This upgrade is a bold
investment in the future of M-PESA and reaffirmation of our commitment to
innovation, resilience and customer trust. By moving to Fintech 2.0, we are
unlocking a platform that not only scales to meet today’s demands but also
anticipates tomorrow’s opportunities,” said Safaricom CEO Dr Peter Ndegwa.
The new M-PESA Core
will expand capacity from 4,500 to 6,000 transactions per second, with the
potential to scale up to 12,000 transactions as demand grows. It will also
introduce an active-active architecture across multiple hosting sites,
guaranteeing higher resilience and minimal service interruption.