MTN Uganda partners with CBA to launch mobile phone based savings and loans service
MTN Uganda in collaboration with The Commercial Bank of Africa has launched a virtual bank account in Uganda allowing customers to save and borrow money using their mobile phone. Uganda now becomes the third country in East Africa to have such a service introduced by CBA after the roaring success of M shwari in Kenya and M pawa in Tanzania.
Mokash the new platform in Uganda allows customers to open an account which they can deposit as low as UShs50 in savings and access micro-loans up to $300 payable with a flat rate of nine per cent, all within a month of disbursement.
The mobile savings and loans product which targets the unbanked population and those lacking collateral and credit history will play a huge role in enhancing financial inclusion in the country according to industry players.
According to MTN Uganda chief executive officer Wim Vanhelleputte, the service is targeted at easing access of financial services by enabling customers to save and borrow money using their phones.
“Enough research was put into this innovation to enable it reach even the last person in the rural area, therefore, we expect it to have the ability to drive Uganda into a cashless economy gradually as it also improves the livelihoods of the people,” said Mr Eric Muriuku, CBA’s general manager of new business ventures.
In Tanzania CBA partners with Vodacom to offer M Pawa while in Kenya it works with Safaricom to offer M Shwari.
MTN aims at duplicating the success Safaricom’s M-Shwari has had in Kenya after partnering with CBA to launch the service in November 2012.
As at March 2016, four years after launching, M-Shwari had collected more than eight billion shillings in savings and disbursed $79 million in loans with a customer base of nearly four million active customers.
