Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited (AMCUL) has announced it has slashed sending fees for its mobile money services by 95%.
According to the new rates, customers will beginning today, December 15 send money across networks for a maximum of shs1000 and the same rate across the entire East African region.
“We have people with children schooling the region that they have to send school fees and pocket money. They always complain of difficulties in fees charged on them to send money. In a bid to ensure customers get value out of our services, we have decided to slash the transaction charges by 95% to send to all networks,” said Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited (AMCUL) Managing Director, Japheth Aritho.
“We have decided that Airtel Money should become a currency that doesn’t differentiate between one partner and the other. It doesn’t matter the network you are sending to or the amount you are sending, you will be charged shs1000.”
The AMCUL boss said the maximum charges for sending money within Uganda from Airtel Money to any other network will be shs1000 and the same rate will apply in the entire East African region.
According to officials, previously, one needed to pay a maximum of shs20,000 to send money to other networks within Uganda and other countries within the region.
In sending money to other networks within the African continent, an Airtel Money customer needed to pay up to shs50,000 whereas the customer needed to pay up to shs58000 to any other networks around the world.
However, officials said to send money around the world, Airtel Money customers will only be charged shs12500.
“The maximum you will pay to send money to East African through the international money transfer will be shs1000. We have been listening to customers in the global world and looking at UK, Middle East, US and have reduced it from shs58000 to shs12500. This drop translates to 95% when sending to other networks in Uganda, 98% for sending money to East Africa and 78% to send money from Airtel Money across the globe.”
The Financial Sector Deepening Program market research report for 2017 indicated that the demand for interoperability by end users of financial services was high, even though faced with high charges.
Most respondents indicated sending (98%) and receiving (97%) money across networks (off-net) as being important or necessary.
Almost all end-users were willing to send (96%) and receive (97%) across networks and 69% were willing to pay slightly more for these services than they would do for transactions on the same network.
They did feel, however, that this cost should be less than it currently is 1.
The latest development according to the Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited (AMCUL) Managing Director will run up to March 15, as a pilot to see whether it can be rolled out forever in the future.
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