Inside M-pesa Tech Stack that powers 4,000 transactions per second |Felix Rop, Head of IT, Safaricom

What does it take to run a fintech platform that processes 4,000 transactions per second? In this exclusive interview, Safaricom's Head of Financial Services IT, Felix K. Rop, gives us an inside look of how the company is evolving its architecture with a new cloud-native, active-active system, leveraging AI for fraud detection, and managing the pressure of providing an always-on, secure service to millions of customers. This is the story of how M-Pesa became a fintech giant.

Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction

An introduction to Felix K. Rop and his role at Safaricom, setting the stage for the interview.

0:23 - The Evolution of M-Pesa's Architecture

Felix discusses the journey of M-Pesa's system architecture, from its early days to the current "best-in-class" scalable design.

1:09 - Ensuring 24/7 Uptime

A deep dive into M-Pesa's robust disaster recovery and failover mechanisms, explaining how they maintain seamless service even during technical issues.

2:05 - Scaling to 4,000 Transactions Per Second

Felix highlights the massive growth in M-Pesa's transaction capacity, from 616 to 4,000 transactions per second, and the continuous upgrades that made it possible.

3:05 - Upgrades Without Downtime

The shift from scheduled maintenance downtime to seamless, continuous upgrades, a key benefit of the new architecture.

3:38 - The M-Pesa Ecosystem and Partner Integrations

An exploration of the wider M-Pesa ecosystem, including the role of APIs and the 45,000+ integrations with partners and developers.

4:20 - Innovation and New Products

Felix discusses how the platform supports innovation, mentioning new products like Hustler Fund and the multi-tenant lending and wealth management platforms.

5:27 - The Journey of a Transaction

A simplified explanation of what happens behind the scenes when a customer sends money, from the moment a request is sent to the final notification.

7:32 - From Monolithic to Cloud-Native

The technical shift from a monolithic system to a modern, cloud-native architecture, and the benefits of this new approach.

9:57 - Layers of Security

Felix details the multi-layered security measures in place, from infrastructure-level protections to internal access controls and monitoring.

11:29 - The Security Mindset: People and Processes

An explanation of the rigorous processes, audits, and human oversight that ensure security and data integrity.

14:32 - The Role of AI in Fraud Detection

The use of AI and machine learning to proactively detect and prevent fraudulent transactions by analyzing customer behavior.

16:37 - Tackling Complex Integrations

Felix shares stories of overcoming complex technical challenges, such as integrating the Hustler Fund in record time.

18:40 - The Pressure and Passion Behind the Scenes

A look at the immense responsibility and passion that drives the M-Pesa team to ensure the platform is "always on" and reliable.

20:51 - Forecasting and Future Capacity

Insights into how the team forecasts future demand and provisions capacity, with a target of 8,000 TPS by the end of next year.

22:27 - Ensuring Partner Resilience

How architectural changes were made to ensure that one partner's issue doesn't bring down the entire M-Pesa ecosystem.

23:23 - The Team and Hiring Philosophy

An overview of the innovative, agile team and the key qualities Safaricom looks for when hiring engineers.

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#Cybersecurity#AI#FraudDetection#SystemArchitecture#Kenya#Nairobi#AfricaTech#AfricanFintech