Kenyan users of M-Shwari, the popular mobile savings and loan service operated by NCBA Bank in partnership with Safaricom’s M-Pesa, experienced a widespread outage over the past 36 hours that left many unable to access or withdraw their money.
The disruption began early Sunday, with reports flooding social media from users unable to move money between M-PESA and M-Shwari. For many, the timing was critical, with the outage striking on a weekend when quick access to mobile loans and savings is often essential for household running costs.
Safaricom acknowledged the downtime later in the day, attributing the failure to a “technical issue” affecting their partner system. For those unaware, M-Shwari is a product run in partnership with NCBA Bank, meaning the backend banking rails are often where these specific bottlenecks occur, rather than the core M-PESA network itself.
In a statement to users, Safaricom noted:
"M-Shwari services are currently unavailable due to an outage. Our partner is working closely with us to resolve the issue and restore services as soon as possible."
As of Monday, Safaricom has communicated that the technical glitch has been resolved and services are restored. However, the reality on the ground suggests the fix hasn’t fully propagated to everyone yet.
While many users can now transact, a section of customers are reporting that their balances are still not reflecting correctly or that transactions initiated during the downtime are hanging in limbo. Safaricom has stated that account reconciliation is currently underway to ensure all funds and transfers sync up properly.
If you tried to move money yesterday and the transaction failed but the money left your account, this reconciliation process is what you are waiting for.
For a service that effectively acts as a primary bank account for millions of Kenyans, “unexpected outages” are more than just an inconvenience; they are a financial paralysis. The fact that reconciliation is still ongoing implies the database sync between Safaricom and NCBA took a significant hit.
If your money is still missing or your balance looks wrong, do not panic. Wait for the reconciliation process to finish (likely by the end of the day). If it’s not resolved by tomorrow, escalate to Safaricom support.
