UGANDA:MicroPay to meet the growing demand for mobile money services

Ugandans still searching for an alternative to the existing mobile money platforms have reason to smile following the entry of another mobile money service provider on the market. 

The latest in mobile money business is MicroPay, a Ugandan platform providing independent electronic mobile money services to cater for growing demand for mobile money services especially in areas where financial institutions haven't established themselves yet.

 MicroPay, through partnership with Centenary Bank obtained a no-objection from Bank of Uganda (BOU) to operate mobile money services. 

Grace Ndyareeba, the managing director of MicroPay says this is in response to a call from the finance minister and central Bank for the promotion of financial inclusion through extending financial services to people in rural areas. 

He explains that the platform is independent of any telecommunications network; instead it is an internet based platform which means any customer regardless of their mobile phone provider is able to use MicroPay mobile money services anywhere in the world. 

"Instead the system works with smart phones having an Android App and iOS for Apple and are in the process of getting phones using Windows on board as well," explained Ndyareeba. 
The platform that is targeting all Ugandans has been designed in such a way that it can pay merchants, banking services like electronic payments, school fees payments, money transfers, international remittance among others. 

It's being championed by Ugandans who include retired bankers, IT specialists, Engineers and some people with over 30 years of financial sector management. 

Regarding reliability, Ndyareeba explains: "In the recent past mobile money services have been affected by intermittent service availability especially on weekends.

 In case of MicroPay, we have deployed a highly available and robust system to ensure customers can send and receive money at any time of the day or week,".

Ndyareeba further explains that in order for one to run an e-payment system, they must partner with a financial institution, regulated by BOU. 

The institution presents a client's intention of starting an e-payment platform to BOU and when approved, they can operate mobile money services under BOU mobile money transaction guidelines. 

The MicroPay platform is partnering with Centenary Bank to offer the escrow services to make sure that people's money is safe but also monitored by BOU. 

SOURCE:NEWVISION.