NCBA Group, the fourth biggest Kenyan bank by asset base, is in the process of restoring full access to M-Shwari, a mobile savings and loan product it operates in partnership with Safaricom, after a more than three-day outage left users unable to view or withdraw their funds. The disruption, which began mid-last week, sparked frustration among customers whose account balances showed zero despite having savings.
The outage comes at a time when mobile lending and savings platforms remain critical for millions of Kenyans shut out of formal banking. Any prolonged downtime not only affects customer trust but also disrupts liquidity for small borrowers who rely on instant credit through their phones.
The issue, first flagged by users online on Wednesday, continued through the weekend. Safaricom said on Sunday that access had been restored, but added that the reconciliation of account balances was still ongoing.
NCBA did not immediately provide a detailed explanation of the cause of the outage or when full reconciliation will be complete after reached out for comment.
At least three users told that their savings had reappeared by Sunday, while two others said their balances were still missing on Monday morning.
“It’s been almost three days now. They do not understand that people had plans for that money,” one customer, who wished not to be named so she could speak freely, told on Sunday.
“We had an outage on M-Shwari services which we have already resolved and the accounts reconciliation process is ongoing. Kindly be patient as we conclude the process. We assure you no funds will be lost,” Safaricom told one of its customers on Monday.
Launched in 2012 through a partnership between Safaricom and NCBA Bank (then Commercial Bank of Africa), M-Shwari was developed as a digital savings and micro-lending platform built on top of M-PESA.
The service was designed to enable users to both save and borrow instantly from their mobile wallets, with NCBA providing the banking infrastructure and credit risk management, while Safaricom handled the distribution and customer interface.
As of the full year 2025, Safaricom had 7.4 million active M-Shwari customers with deposits totalling KES 49.3 billion ($382 million). The platform disbursed loans worth KES 96.4 billion ($748 million) in the same period, according to company financial data.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a new title and to clarify that the M-Shwari technical issue originated on NCBA’s side, not Safaricom’s.
