For M-PESA, a service that has become synonymous with the Kenyan economy, system downtime even for scheduled maintenance has always been a major inconvenience, halting commerce for millions. Now, Safaricom is promising that the occasional system outage will soon be a relic of the past.
Speaking during an interview on the Trading Bell, Safaricom Group CEO Dr. Peter Ndegwa said the redesigned M-PESA Fintech 2.0 platform will eliminate the need for full system shutdowns during maintenance. The system is built on a next-generation “active-active” architecture engineered for an “always-on” experience, drastically boosting system resilience.
“You’ll never hear M-PESA has been shut for repair or for maintenance. You know the way we used to say [we’re shutting down for maintenance] and when it gets shut, everything stops. It will never happen.”
This commitment to uninterrupted service is perhaps the most critical component of Fintech 2.0, as transaction volumes continue to surge, demanding 24/7 reliability.
Microservices: Only small components go offline, not the whole platform
At the core of the upgrade is a microservices-based architecture, replacing the monolithic system that previously required complete downtime during major updates. Under the new model, M-PESA is broken into many smaller, independent components, meaning individual services can be updated or repaired without taking the entire platform offline. If one part of the system encounters an issue, only that component is affected, and the rest of M-PESA continues running normally.
Data is also compartmentalized, meaning that in the event of database issues, “you only lose a small part of that database,” rather than affecting the whole network, Dr. Ndegwa explained. This modular approach mirrors the architecture used by modern financial institutions and global tech platforms, enabling faster and safer updates.
M-PESA Fintech 2.0 is designed for tomorrow’s demand
For users, this marks a significant improvement. Historically, scheduled maintenance, often announced late at night or on weekends, meant M-PESA was periodically unavailable for hours. Such shutdowns disrupted businesses, nighttime transactions, and emergency payments.
Fintech 2.0 aims to eliminate this problem entirely, meaning Safaricom will now be able to:
- Perform system updates while M-PESA remains fully operational
- Add new products and features without service interruptions
- Respond to service issues more granularly and quickly
The shift also supports Safaricom’s broader push to introduce new features such as tap-to-pay, wallet sharing, and AI-powered fraud detection, without risking platform stability.
The upgrade comes as M-PESA’s user base grows both in Kenya and in Ethiopia, where Safaricom is rapidly scaling operations. With Fintech 2.0, the company is positioning the platform to handle higher transaction volumes, more complex digital services, and future fintech innovations.
By moving away from full-system downtimes, Safaricom is aligning M-PESA with global reliability standards as the service increasingly competes with regional and international mobile-money and fintech operators. With over 90% of all mobile money users and the millions of merchants and agents across the country, this foundational upgrade ensures that M-PESA remains reliable, fast, and, most importantly, always available.
