What Happens to Dormant Mobile Money Accounts in Uganda? We talk about that in this post. It is forecast that by 2023 the number of people using mobile payments will grow to 1.31 billion worldwide over a 6-month period — merchantsavvy. Mobile Money mainly refers to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. Rather than paying with cash, cheque, or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile to pay for a wide range of services and digital or hard goods. Even though the concept of using non-coin-based currency systems has a long history, it is only in the 21st century that the technology to support such systems has become widely available.
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Internet service providers in Uganda (some) have also been providing Mobile Money services. The main mobile internet service providers in Uganda are MTN and Airtel Uganda. Using either of them, you are able to:
a) Send and receive money
b) Buy airtime or internet bundles or voice bundles using your mobile money
c) Pay utility bills using mobile money
d) Pay for goods and services using mobile money
e) Save your money, etc.
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What qualifies your mobile money account to be deactivated?
The activities listed above are available for those who are registered and are actively using mobile money. This means you are given a mobile money account that only you can use. But what if you are a dormant mobile money user in Uganda? You rarely send or receive money using your mobile money account. If you are to send or receive, it might be after 8 months or so. What then happens to your dormant mobile money account and how can you re-activate it? Stick around, as we talk about that next.
What Happens to Dormant Mobile Money Accounts in Uganda
Firstly, for MTN, it takes 9 months of inactivity for your mobile money account to be considered as dormant. What happens after that is your mobile money account is de-activated. Meaning after it has been deactivated, however much you try to use it, you will not be able to. What do you do then? You go to an official MTN Service center and re-activate it. It is important to note that you will be informed a month before the 9th month that your mobile money account is going to be deactivated.
After declaring the mobile money account dormant, the ISP has an allowance of 6 more months before the mobile money account is fully closed. This gives you a total of 15 months before your mobile money account is fully closed.
According to the National Payments Systems Act 2020, the money on dormant mobile money accounts is supposed to be transferred to the central bank by an ISP after 15 months of accounts inactivity.
The central bank then keeps the money for the next 7 years awaiting any claims from the mobile money accounts holder. If there are no claims after the 7 years, the money is then transferred to the government consolidated funds.
Secondly, for Airtel, it takes a year of inactivity for your mobile money account to be considered dormant. What happens after that is similar to MTN.
Conclusion
We hope this article has been helpful. Share with us your experience with any of these telecom companies in the comments below or via our social media channels.