On the evening of Saturday 8th December 2018, Kenyans who rely on Mpesa for money transactions were left stranded and helpless due to massive blackout which was experienced across the country.
Mpesa users could not send or receive money, pay via Lipa Na Mpesa nor even buy credit or any other related service from Mpesa.
Safaricom which owns the mobile money transfer utility acknowledged the outage and promised to resolve the matter.
On the following day Sunday, the biting issues had been resolved but Kenyans who had enough of the breakdown were unforgiving.
Safaricom later confirmed the issues had been resolved and apologized to its customers.
Check out some of the reasons that may have caused Safaricom’s Mpesa go down
Money moves to make
To avoid being the hard hit victim when mobile money services go down, here are some money nuggets for your pockets
1.Always have other alternatives such as T-Kash, Equitel Money, Airtel Money among others to serve as a back up
2.Ensure you have some loose cash in your pockets for emergencies, this can be so vital in situations such as when you need a fare ticket of just sh.100 and its only on your phone
3.Avoid last minute purchases, do your money transactions in good time such as booking travelling ticket in advance rather than on d-day.
4.Always pay for the services before you can use them. E.g Before drinking alcohol, pay for it or else you remain their hostage until the downtime of money payment service is up again
5.If you notice any service delay, stop your purchase and look for other alternatives
6.Check with the customer care whether the services are down and ask them when it will be back to nomal
7.Have trusted friends who can rescue you when you caught pants down by the menace. Such can be called upon and deliver the needed cash physically.
8.Be aware of conmen, they always try to take advantage of such situations and may end up worsening your already poor situation
9. Remember that banks are better back ups, use their ATMs and counter services in such needs
10. Mobile money apps should not be thrown to the back-burner, they also come as a rescue mission in such tough situations. Also consider being in tandem with different agents designated by various banks to offer transactions on their behalfs
