Safaricom has started final preparations for the launch of the second generation of its M-PESA platform as it prepares to perform a full scale system upgrade aimed at improving efficiencies and speed over the next week.
Safaricom had first announced plans to replace its M-PESA platform last year, seeking to migrate the current platform to an enhanced platform that will allow for faster transactions, improved stability as well as enable more functionality from the service.
“This is a milestone moment for the M-PESA platform as we embark on our final preparations ahead of the full migration process. We anticipate this new platform will unlock a new era of transformational mobile financial services.” said Betty Mwangi, General Manager – Financial Services, Safaricom.
Over the last six months, Safaricom has met a number of key milestones as it progresses on its journey to migrate the entire M-PESA platform to Kenya, including conducting a number of dry runs to ensure that stability and uptime are restored as soon as possible after the migration.
The company will be integrating all existing internal systems including security, redundancy and disaster recovery on the new platform. The Central Bank of Kenya and the Communications Authority of Kenya have been provided with oversight over the entire migration process to ensure that Safaricom meets its stated goals with minimal disruption to the customer.
“What this means is that we are not only offering faster speeds and more secure transactions to our customers, we are also creating the foundation for a more accessible system that will further enable the rapidly growing mobile money ecosystem in Kenya to continue to grow and be fuelled by locally created solutions,” said Ms. Mwangi.
Additional benefits of the new system will extend to enhanced system stability due to reduction in points of failure; functional flexibility that will allow a wider range of customer services; easier integration onto M-PESA for 3rd Parties; and improved business continuity for continued service availability.
