It is at that point of the year where you have stopped mourning for OTT and all your left with is your mobile wallet, to keep your life moving as you pay for bills and receive cash using Mobile Money. At that point, MTN does the magic and voila you receive a notification to a tweet.
Effective May 10th, 2019, MTN Uganda is going to implement new charges on its Mobile Money transactions. This comes after earlier this year, MTN Uganda increasing its Mobile Money to bank account transactions as shown in the picture below.
As per the bank rates increment, it was quite clear that MTN in a way was discouraging transaction to Bank accounts (Not with those outrageously doubled and tripled new rates)
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The increase is almost negligible
The same increment has been reflected in the new transaction charges, these charges shall be higher for transaction of large sums of money (starting from UGX 30,000 and above) and they shall affect in withdrawing, sending and receiving money.
The percentage increase for the different transactions (excluding those to Non-MTN Mobile Money customers) ranges between 3% and 10% as you shall see in the table below.
Reduced cost of sending to Non-MTN MoMo customers
The costs in sending Money to Non-MTN Mobile Money customers are clear and loud enough, communicating the message of MTN Uganda encouraging transactions with other service providers on the market.
This tremendous percentage decrease ranges from 60% (for lower price transactions) up to 27% (for higher transactions), this should be able to promote transfer across from MTN to other networks.
Below is a table showing the old prices and the new prices of MTN Uganda’s Mobile Money charges.
| Transaction tiers | Sending Money to | Withdraw | |||||||
| Min | Max | MTN Mobile Money Customer | Non-MTN Mobile Money Customer | From Agent | From ATM | ||||
| OLD | NEW | OLD | NEW | OLD | NEW | OLD | NEW | ||
| 500 – 2,500 | 250 | 100 | 830 | 300 | 330 | 350 | n/a | n/a | |
| 2,501 – 5,000 | 500 | 300 | 940 | 600 | 440 | 480 | n/a | 1,150 | |
| 5,001 – 15,000 | 1,000 | 900 | 1,880 | 1,200 | 700 | 770 | 1,100 | 1,150 | |
| 15,001 – 30,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,880 | 1,500 | 880 | 970 | 1,100 | 1,150 | |
| 30,001 – 45,000 | 1,000 | 1,100 | 2,310 | 1,500 | 1,210 | 1,350 | 1,320 | 1,400 | |
| 45,001 – 60,000 | 1,000 | 1,100 | 2,310 | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,650 | 1,320 | 1,400 | |
| 60,001 – 125,000 | 1,600 | 1,650 | 3,325 | 2,500 | 1,925 | 2,150 | 2,035 | 2,150 | |
| 125,001 – 250,000 | 1,600 | 1,650 | 4,975 | 3,500 | 3,575 | 3,950 | 3,795 | 3,900 | |
| 250,001 – 500,000 | 1,600 | 2,200 | 7,175 | 7,000 | 7,000 | 7,750 | 6,325 | 11,950 | |
| 500,001 – 1,000,000 | 2,000 | 2,200 | 12,650 | 10,000 | 12,500 | 13,750 | 11,385 | 11,950 | |
| 1,000,001 – 2,000,000 | 2,000 | 2,200 | 22,000 | 17,000 | 19,800 | 21,750 | n/a | 11,950 | |
| 2,000,001 – 4,000,000 | 2,000 | 2,200 | 37,400 | 27,000 | 35,200 | 38,650 | n/a | n/a | |
| 4,000,0001 – 7,000,000 | 2,000 | 2,200 | 55,000 | 40,000 | 49,000 | 52,500 | n/a | n/a | |
Conclusion
Whatever it is the MTN Uganda is planning in 2019, we are ready to find out. But however small the increments might be, this is not a move its customer (i personally) are very happy about and let us hope the number of mobile money transactions will not reduce.