Kenya: Fuel Stations, Online Food Delivery Platforms Hit By M-Pesa Outage

Voice of America
A Vodafone employee shows M-Pesa's text message transactions option on a mobile phone, in Bucharest, April 2014.
9 January 2024
Capital FM (Nairobi)
By Phidel Kizito

Nairobi — Several fuel stations and online food delivery platforms were affected by the M-Pesa outage today, which affected transactions.

At major gas stations, attendants were turning away customers due to the downtime.

"It is quite frustrating. I am taking my son to school. I can't refill my car because M-Pesa is down," lamented one of the motorist who sought anonymity.

The absence also negatively impacted firms such as Uber Eats and Glovo after buyers could not transact through the mobile money platform.

"Most of our customers pay through M-PESA. Right now, when they are using M-Pesa the transactions cannot go through. They have remained pending and this has really delayed our work," said John Njuguna, who is an Uber Eats rider.

Safaricom has, however, attributed the outage, which affected transactions on its M-Pesa app, USSD code, and SIM card tool to ongoing scheduled maintenance.

However, the services are back to normal now.

Read the original article on Capital FM.

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