Millions of Kenyans are set to experience a temporary disruption in mobile money services after Safaricom PLC announced a scheduled system upgrade for its M-Pesa platform.
The telecommunications giant confirmed that the upgrade will take place on Monday, September 22, 2025, from 12:30 am to 3:30 am.
During the three-hour maintenance window, all M-Pesa services, including sending and receiving money, paying bills, purchasing airtime, and using M-Pesa-linked banking services, will be completely unavailable. Safaricom has urged its customers to plan their transactions in advance to avoid inconvenience.
According to Safaricom, the upgrade is aimed at improving service reliability, performance, and security of the country’s most widely used mobile money platform.
“For 18 years, M-Pesa has transformed lives, enabling millions of Kenyans to access financial services conveniently. To maintain this promise, we will be conducting a system upgrade to strengthen reliability and security,” the company stated.
The firm emphasised that the timing of the maintenance was carefully chosen to minimise disruption since the majority of users are usually inactive during the early morning hours.
Safaricom also apologised in advance for the temporary inconvenience while assuring customers that the upgrade would lead to a more robust and seamless service experience.
Analysts note that system upgrades are common in digital financial services, especially for platforms serving millions of daily transactions. However, they caution that even short outages can have ripple effects on businesses, especially those relying heavily on M-Pesa for real-time payments.
Safaricom reaffirmed its commitment to innovation, noting that M-Pesa remains at the core of Kenya’s digital economy, facilitating transactions for individuals, small businesses, corporates, and government institutions.
The company thanked its customers for their continued trust and support, promising that the improvements will translate into faster, safer, and more reliable services going forward.
With M-Pesa deeply embedded in daily life, from buying food to paying rent, the temporary blackout serves as a reminder of how vital the platform has become to Kenya’s financial ecosystem.
