M-PESA Africa Opens $2mn Shared Service Operations Centre

Safaricom PLC has launched the M-PESA Africa Shared Services Operation Centre (SSOC) to oversee service operations and technical support for five African markets.

The $2 million investment in Nairobi will oversee service operations and technical support, including incident monitoring and resolution in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Lesotho, Ghana, and future markets the service expands to. 

M-PESA platform operations in the five markets were previously handled across several points in Africa and Europe. The SSOC brings the entire platform in-house to a single point in Kenya for the first time.

In addition, the platform will enable Safaricom to manage platform changes and upgrades, deploy new features and capacity, and coordinate with technical vendors.

“The Shared Service Operations Centre strengthens our position as Africa’s largest fintech and digital ecosystem, bringing us closer to our vision of one M-Pesa, providing one platform and unified operations across all our markets,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, MD – M-Pesa Africa.

 “It will enable us to deliver increased reliability, a more robust platform, faster upgrade and change management as we transition to a fully digital ecosystem connecting customers and businesses across the continent.”

The new M-PESA platform is designed to be scalable, offer the entire range of products and services across all markets, support integration of new products and services, and leverage emerging technologies in areas such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.