Three more players have joined the fast growing mobile money platform in
Uganda bringing the number of financial institutions in the mobile
banking sector to nine. PHOTO | FILE
By ISAAC KHISA, The EastAfrican
In Summary
- Stanbic and Postbank have unveiled mobile banking services in partnership with MTN Mobile Money whereas Pride Microfinance Ltd is collaborating with both MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money.
- The move by banks to embrace mobile banking is aimed at tapping into the country’s three million customers with bank accounts, majority of whom are believed to own mobile phones registered on a mobile money platform.
Three more players have joined the fast growing mobile money
platform in Uganda bringing the number of financial institutions in the
mobile banking sector to nine.
Stanbic Bank, Pride Microfinance and Postbank are the newest
players to venture into mobile banking, riding on the mobile money
platforms.
Stanbic and Postbank have unveiled mobile banking services in
partnership with MTN Mobile Money whereas Pride Microfinance Ltd is
collaborating with both MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money.
The services allow customers to transfer funds from their bank
accounts to other accounts, monitor and check their account balances,
request mini-statements, purchase airtime and pay utility bills.
“This product is intended to change the way our customers
interact with the bank… making it easier for them to access our services
at their convenience,” said Deo Kateizi, head of corporate affairs at
Pride Microfinance.
Stanbic Bank Uganda managing director Patrick Muhairwe said the bank is looking to add value to the mobile money platform.
“At the moment, we have more people with mobile phones compared
with people with bank accounts and we are looking at how they can carry
out various banking transactions via their mobiles,” Mr Muhairwe said,
adding that Stanbic Bank is also developing savings and loan products
for mobile phone users, similar to those run by Kenya’s KCB Group,
Commercial Bank of Africa and Equity Bank.
KCB launched a mobile phone-based loan product repayable at
interest rates of between four and 12 per cent in March this year, to
compete with CBA’s highly successful M-Shwari, intensifying the battle
for mobile banking with other lenders.
KCB-M-Pesa was unveiled in partnership with Safaricom, giving
subscribers of the telcos mobile money platform access to loans of
between Ksh50 ($0.5) and Ksh1 million ($10,080) repayable between one
and six months.
Kenya’s Equity Bank has unveiled Eazzy Loan, which the bank is
providing through Equitel, the lender’s nine-month-old mobile platform.
In Uganda, Stanbic is also looking at tapping into the
international remittances by enabling its customers to deposit cash into
their accounts directly through a visa enabled platform.
Other commercial banks in Uganda that have ventured into mobile
banking in the past five years are Bank of Africa, Centenary Bank, KCB
Uganda, DFCU, Housing Finance Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
The move by banks to embrace mobile banking is aimed at tapping
into the country’s three million customers with bank accounts, majority
of whom are believed to own mobile phones registered on a mobile money
platform.
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