Business

Relief for Eastleigh business hub as Safaricom announces resumption of M-Pesa services

Safaricom's headquarters in Westlands, Nairobi. (Photo: Courtesy)

By Mercy Asamba | Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Approximately two hundred thousand people visit Eastleigh business hub everyday to either buy or engage in other business and most of them depend on M-Pesa.

Safaricom has announced the resumption of M-Pesa services that had paralyzed businesses in Eastleigh.

In a statement on January 9, Safaricom apologized to its customers for the inconvenience caused.

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"All M-Pesa services are now available. We apologize for any inconvenience caused, and thank you for your patience as we worked to restore services," it said.

The services had been down for more than two hours, affecting many businesses in the busy Eastleigh town.

Commuters, business people, petrol station attendants, and their customers raised uproar following the outage.

"I'm stuck at the saloon. I am unable to pay since I don't have cash on me," said Amina Mohammed, who was at a local saloon.

Some were unable to pay the cab drivers after they reached their destination, leaving many with limited options.

"We had to agree that I will make the payments once the services are back since I have no other option," Abdi said.

Many business owners along key streets, including Yusuf Haji Street, Jam Street, and BBS Mall were also affected.

Most customers who had tried to use the services during the morning hours got an error message stating, "The parameters of data sources are null."

Some M-Pesa users got reports that the system is undergoing scheduled maintenance in pop-up messages.

"Dear Customer, we are experiencing delays on all M-Pesa transactions. We will advise once this is fully restored by our partners," Safaricom said in a message to some of its customers.

Others got the message: " Dear customer, M-Pesa is undergoing maintenance and is unable to process your request. We apologize for the inconvenience."

This left many users stranded as they expressed their frustrations on social media, saying no prior warning was issued.

In a day, two million people visit Eastleigh to transact, with many using Mpesa services.

According to Peter Ndegwa, Eastleigh accounts for five percent of Safaricom's total revenue.