M-Pesa users will have to do without the service over this weekend. Safaricom will shut down mobile money transfer system on Saturday and Sunday to facilitate the transfer of its servers from Germany to Kenya.
Services that will be affected include sending, depositing and receiving money, topping up airtime, mobile banking and making payments through Lipa na M-Pesa. “We have begun the long-awaited journey to bring M-Pesa home,” said Ms Betty Mwangi, Safaricom’s general manager for financial services.
From today the company has suspended the registration of new M-Pesa customers and transfer of cash to rival mobile phone networks until transfer is completed on Sunday.
M-Pesa subscribers will also be barred from sending cash to unregistered users or changing their personal identification numbers (PINs) in this period. Registration of new customers on mobile banking services M-Shwari or M-Kesho will also not be available from 11pm tonight to Sunday noon.
The Commercial Bank of Africa is the largest bank by customer numbers largely because of its over 10 million M-Shwari customers. M-Shwari processes 50,000 loans and by early March this year, the bank had given out Ksh29 billion in loans.
According to records from Safaricom, M-Pesa users paid Ksh11 billion per month through Lipa Na M-Pesa and Pay Bill in the last financial year, translating to an average Ksh360 million daily. That means Ksh720 million will be held up for the two days.
Safaricom says the upgrade will ensure faster transaction times while the system will be more secure. The platform will also offer a wide range of services, including business-to-business transactions, which will benefit banks and utility companies like Kenya Power.
Safaricom said the new system was designed by Vodafone and was built by Huawei. IBM has functional know-how on its operations. The three will work with Safaricom to ensure the success of the enhanced services.
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