MTN Power Failure an Internal Hitch, 1m Customers Compensated

MTN Uganda has promised to compensate all customers who lost their data during the service blackout on Sunday afternoon. Sylva Mulinge says that by mid-Tuesday morning, at least 1 million customers had already been refunded, calling those who may not yet have been compensated to reach out to their customer service desk. 

On Sunday afternoon, users suddenly found out that they could not make mobile money payments, transfer or send money, or even transact between their mobile money wallets and the bank. Calls and data services were also down. Mulinge explains that the breakdown was due to a power disruption at one of their three data centres, which they have since revealed to have been the one at Mutundwe in Kampala. In her apology, Mulinge emphasised that what happened was purely a technical hitch not caused by any external factors.   

While the company lost some revenues due to the disruptions in services, the Chief Finance Officer, Andrew Bugembe, says it was not very significant since it was for a short time. He, however, says that the customers who rely on mobile money services and internet supplied by MTN, the Mobile money agents, and merchants made significant business losses.  

Mulinge also explained that they were ready to refund the data that expired at the time the system was down. “If you were impacted, kindly send us a direct message with your phone number and the bundle size that was lost so we can assist,” she said, adding that the focus was now on preventing a recurrence by investing in stronger infrastructure to deliver a more reliable and resilient network.     

Following the service disruptions, there were claims on social media that some users had lost money. Some of these claimed that they had been sent cash during that period and that either less was received or nothing at all.  However, MTN Mobile Money Managing Director, Phrase Lubega, refuted this as technically impossible. He says affected transactions were those that could not be completed and that, in this case, no money moved from the wallet or the sender or from an agent and was not delivered.    

On exactly what happened, engineers explained that there are six generators at the data centre and one of them malfunctioned, prompting the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to ‘self-protect’ and block the complete power supply. Lubega says, therefore, that the services remain safe and that the customers have no cause to fear losing their money or personal data.

Stanbic Bank Uganda was the only other company whose services were directly affected by the hitch at the data centre, because it shares (or relies on) the same data centre in Mutundwe where the power failure occurred. The power outage therefore also simultaneously disrupted Stanbic’s digital services, including internet and mobile banking, agent banking, USSD systems, ATMs, Point of Sale terminals, and FlexiPay. 

This is a digital wallet and financial service by Stanbic Bank Uganda for sending and receiving money, paying utility bills, and shopping at merchants for free without needing a traditional bank account.   

This shared dependency explains why the two major South African-linked firms experienced parallel disruptions from one power event.