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Uganda: Mobile Money Business Enters New Territory
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- Warid telecom, one of the telecom companies in Uganda has marked two weeks in the mobile money business registering success, a top official at the company has said.
  
  Shailendra Naidu, Warid's commercial officer told The Independent in an interview that the facility (Warid Pesa) which was launched in December last year has so far seen many customers use without any difficulty.
  
  "The numbers are overwhelming though I won't mention how many customers and agents we have so far, but the number is far above than we expected," Naidu said.
  
  This is the fourth company to roll out the facility after MTN's mobile money, Airtel's ZAP and UTL's M-sente. Orange Uganda is planning to launch the facility soon, according to Geodfrey Kisekka, the company's chief technical officer.
  
  The mobile money business allows a mobile phone user to send and receive, pay for services anywhere using the mobile phone. MTN who pioneered the service in 2009, controls 80 percent of mobile money transactions in Uganda, moving US$ 90 million (Shs 216 billion) a month across its network.
  
  The other 20 percent is shared between Airtel and UTL, to make a combined total of over 3 million users.
  
  While asked about the competition, Naidu said they are confident that they will win customers because they are offering products which are not offered by other players.
  
  "Our service allows subscribers to send money to all other networks," he said adding, "It uses SMS and Internet-enabled handset platforms and that subscribers can use the internet in case the system breaks down. "And above all we have a professional team overseeing our system and our equipment is first class."
  
  A top official at MTN who The Independent talked to on Thursday afternoon said they welcome Warid in the mobile money business and that it will help them improve on the quality. "It will give customers a wide variety of choice and they will choose which service to use," the official said.
  
  Towards the end of last year, MTN mobile money had almost broken down as the company said they were upgrading the system to make it more efficient to its users. Many users were stuck after failing to access their money on their phones.
  
  Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) which regulates telecom companies, Bank of Uganda and the operators are planning to meet and find a legal framework on which to regulate the facility which has no regulator as of now.
Tags:Airtel., Warid Telecom, Warid Pesa, Zaputl, M-sente.
Source:The Independent