List of Safaricom services that will be unavailable on Sunday morning

Safaricom has announced that some of its services will be unavailable on Sunday morning.

The telecommunications company said this is because of system maintenance that is scheduled for March 22.

“All calls, SMS services, M-Pesa, internet and data shall remain available for the duration of the maintenance,” the statement from Safaricom reads.

Services that will be unavailable from Sunday 2am to 8am are:

• All airtime top ups (including M-Pesa)
• All product purchases including purchase of data, voice and SMS bundles
• All Bonga point services including redemption of Bonga points post-paid payments
• All balance transfers
• All airtime, data bundles and SMS balance enquiries

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for you patience,” Safaricom said.

Meanwhile, M-Pesa users will for the next three months send amounts below Ksh.1,000 for free,.

The move is aimed at reducing the risk of contracting the novel coronavirus through physical handling of cash.

Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said the waiver, which takes effect from Tuesday, March 16, was made following a directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The Head of State had said mobile service providers should explore ways of deepening mobile money usage in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak.

At the same time, Safaricom has approved the increase of daily M-Pesa transaction limits from the current Ksh.70,000 to Ksh.150,000 to cater for small and micro business enterprises (SMEs).

Kenyans will also be able to transact up to Ksh.300,000 up from the current limit of Ksh.140,000, and hold up to Ksh.300,000 in their M-Pesa accounts.