East Africa
MTN joins Standard Chartered Bank for cashless Uganda
Standard Chartered Bank Uganda has joined MTN Uganda to enable corporate their clients to pay services providers the mobile money platform
“The Ugandan government is working towards a cashless economy, to maximize operational efficiencies and mitigate the risks associated with cash payments. Standard Chartered remains committed to creating partnerships which not only enhance the local financial sector’s proposition and infrastructure, but also improves our customers’ experience and operational efficiencies.” Herman Kasekende, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer said.
‘Straight2Bank’ will enable the bank’s clients to make payment directly into the individuals MTN Mobile Money wallet which saves time and also mitigates the risks of fraud and theft associated with cash payments.
MTN Uganda Head of Mobile Financial Services, Phrase Lubega said the platform has the capacity to handle over one million transactions per day as well as managing a good volume of cash as compared to other mobile money platforms.
“Mobile wallets are especially useful for companies such as; development organizations, international organisations, agricultural companies and fast-moving consumer goods companies which process high volumes of individual payments to beneficiaries such as; aid workers, trainers, policy holders and farmers,” he said.
He said the Straight 2 Bank Wallet will be implemented all countries where Standard Chartered has a finger print. Kasekendde said the platform has been effectively used in Kenya and Tanzania in addition to other African countries.
Kasekende said corporate clients in those countries have embraced the new innovation.
Lubega said: “This partnership provides immense opportunity for such companies and organisations to make payments directly to the final beneficiaries. MTN continues to provide Mobile Money innovations to support our partners and we are very excited about this partnership with Standard Chartered Bank.”
Under the arrangement Standard Chartered Bank corporate clients paying their services providers using the mobile money platform will be charged Ush2000 per transaction.
Straight2Bank Wallet is a mobile wallet service that enables companies to make cashless payments to the MTN Mobile Money Wallets, of both banked and unbanked individuals.
The Bank’s partnership with MTN will expand the coverage of Standard Chartered mobile wallet service in Africa, making it the sixth country in Africa where the service is available..
With the introduction of this new payment channel, Standard Chartered’s corporate clients in Uganda can now use the Bank’s Straight2Bank electronic banking platform to make payments directly into an individual’s MTN Mobile Money wallet.
This allows clients to effectively reach out to their beneficiaries with timely payments, while mitigating the risks of fraud and theft associated with cash payments
More than half of Uganda’s population operates mobile money accounts, with MTN platform having the largest clients of about eight million.
Kasekende commended the collaboration between MTN and the his Bank which he said it will not help the Bank’s client to pay their services providers in time but also help the Telecom company to register more clients on their Mobile money platform.
SOURCE:BUSIWEEK
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