07 October 2022

MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda paid 9.1 billion Ugandan shillings in interest to users of their mobile money services for the second quarter of 2022.

Subscribers with balances greater than UGX 1 between 1 April and 30 June were paid interest starting from 14 September. MTN Uganda paid UGX 5.7 billion to 19.8 million MoMo users, while Airtel Uganda paid UGX 3.4 billion to 20 million Airtel Money accounts.

The interest payments are in line with Uganda’s regulatory provisions for mobile financial service providers. Back in June 2021, MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda had to separate their mobile phone businesses to comply with the Ugandan National Payments Systems (NPS) Act 2020. According to the law, companies providing payment services must pay interest earned on a fiduciary account to their clients.

“As MTN Mobile Money Uganda, we strongly believe that this quarterly interest paid to customers will encourage a culture of savings and create wealth and investment opportunities, especially in medium and small businesses that are heavy users of mobile money platform,” said Richard Yego, managing director, MTN MoMo Uganda Ltd.

The Bank of Uganda has reported that mobile money transactions grew on volume from 3.9 billion in the second quarter of 2021 to 4.8 billion in the same period of 2022. In terms of transaction value, year on year growth between the second quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022 stood at 37.6%, from UGX 113.3 billion to UGX 156 billion.