M-PESA is upgrading its platform on Sept. 22; here’s what customers can expect after

Summary

Safaricom will perform a major migration of M-PESA to a new core called Fintech 2.0 on 22 September. The telco plans a three-hour overnight window during which M-PESA services (payments, airtime purchases and related functions) will be offline while customer data is moved and live tests run.

The new platform is cloud-native, built on microservices, and initially handles about 6,000 transactions per second with headroom to scale to 12,000. Safaricom says the upgrade aims to reduce outages, speed up feature rollouts and improve response times. The work is being handled by more than 210 local engineers with support from over 100 international specialists.

Fintech 2.0 runs on a locally built, cloud-agnostic active-active setup and will also use Microsoft Azure for some workloads and AI tools, while Vodafone is investing in AI across M-PESA markets. The shift replaces an ageing core that was close to capacity and should keep M-PESA relevant for the next decade.

Key Points

Upgrade date: 22 September, three-hour overnight migration window during which M-PESA services will be offline.
Scale and performance: new cloud-native core starts at ~6,000 transactions per second and can scale to 12,000 TPS.
Architecture: microservices and active-active, multi-site deployment to improve availability and allow component-level updates without full system downtime.
Local hosting: new M-PESA cloud built locally to keep customer data in Kenya, addressing data residency concerns.
Partners and tech: Microsoft Azure to host workloads and provide AI tools for fraud detection and predictive maintenance; Vodafone backing AI investments across markets.
Risk and readiness: migration managed by a large engineering team with multiple tests; Safaricom expects customers to see faster responses and fewer interruptions post-migration.
Impact: affects 50+ million customers across Africa; even short outages can disrupt daily commerce, so timing and testing are critical.

Why should I read this?

If you use M-PESA (personally or for business), this matters. The service will be offline for a set window and the upgrade changes how M-PESA runs under the hood—faster, more reliable and easier to update. In plain terms: plan around the downtime and expect snappier transactions afterwards. Saved you the digging—here’s the nutshell version.

Author style

Punchy and direct: this is a high-stakes tech migration that affects millions. If you rely on M-PESA, pay attention to the timing and the promised improvements; the move shapes the service’s performance for years to come.