In yet another exciting development in mobile money innovation, MTN Uganda announced the launch of outbound mobile money transfer services to Rwanda and Kenya.
Last year, MTN launched international mobile money transfer services; but only supporting inbound transfers where MTN Mobile Money customers could only receive money from Kenya and Rwanda.
In this latest development, MTN Mobile Money customers in Uganda will now also be able to send money to MPesa and MTN Mobile Money customers in Kenya and Rwanda respectively. This MTN Mobile Money solution has an automatic currency converter, which means that both the sender and receiver will send and receive money in their respective local currencies. The service enables an MTN customer in Uganda to send money in Uganda Shillings to a recipient in Kenya or a recipient in Rwanda who will receive it in Kenya shillings or Rwandese Francs respectively. The recipient has to be a customer of Safaricom’s MPesa in Kenya and in Rwanda one has to be an MTN Mobile Money customer to receive the money directly on their phones.
Customers who intend to send money to Kenya and Rwanda will pay a fee of 5,000/-plus a 5% of the amount being sent. However, at launch, MTN is offering customers a 50% discount on this transaction fee for a limited period of time. With this discounted offer, it means customers will only pay 2,500/- plus 2.5% on every amount they send to either Kenya or Rwanda. This MTN Mobile Money cross border transfer service is a lot more affordable compared to existing international transfer options.
To send money internationally (to either Kenya or Rwanda), a customer simply dials *165*1* and selects Option 5 to send to Safaricom MPesa customers or Option 6 to send to MTN Mobile Money customers in Rwanda. It’s instant, secure and easy.
“Technology is helping us eliminate national borders, enabling a unified digital and mobile financial services world. We are delighted to offer a solution that further enhances that agenda and trust that our customers will find it a secure and easy way of transferring funds internationally,” said Mr. Phrase Lubega, MTN Uganda’s General Manager in charge of Mobile Financial Services.
The Mobile Money ecosystem has expanded extensively, with the launch of a number of innovative solutions that integrate Mobile Money into the fabric of our society, making it an integral part of our customer’s lives.
In August this year, MTN launched MoKash, giving millions of Ugandans access to micro loans and making it possible for them to save money easily on their mobile phones. In the three months since its launch, MoKash has attracted more than 1.2million customers with savings close to 3bn Uganda shillings.