Somalia’s widely used EVC Plus mobile money service experienced an hours-long disruption on Wednesday, affecting money transfers, payments and other transactions before service was restored.
EVC Plus, one of Somalia’s most widely used mobile money services, experienced a service disruption on Wednesday that lasted several hours and affected users in different parts of the country.
Multiple users reported being unable to send or receive money during the outage. Some customers said they encountered an “Internal Service Error” message when attempting to carry out transactions.
The disruption also affected payments for goods and services at businesses that rely heavily on EVC Plus. Reports indicated that some money-transfer services and remittance-related transactions were also affected.
EVC Plus, operated by Hormuud Telecom, plays a central role in Somalia’s financial system and is deeply integrated into the daily lives of millions of people and businesses across the country.
The outage once again highlighted Somalia’s heavy reliance on mobile money services. A prolonged disruption to a major platform such as EVC Plus can have an immediate impact on businesses, transportation, salaries, remittances and other essential economic activities.
As of publication, no official explanation had been provided for the cause of the disruption. There was also no verified evidence indicating that the outage was linked to a cyberattack or a security breach.
The EVC Plus service was later restored and returned to normal operations.
