{"id":92,"date":"2011-05-02T12:21:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T12:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/mtn-rwanda-to-augment-mobile-cash-service\/"},"modified":"2011-05-02T11:38:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T11:38:38","slug":"mtn-rwanda-to-augment-mobile-cash-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/mtn-rwanda-to-augment-mobile-cash-service\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN Rwanda to augment mobile cash service"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTN<\/span> Rwanda plans to develop more applications on its mobile money transfer service to allow more transactions and tap into the booming demand for the facility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The firm announced it had transferred over Rwf12<\/span> billion ($201 million) since its launch last year with an estimated 6,000 transactions carried out daily. It has so far attracted 261,000 users and 310 agents across the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are expanding usage of the service beyond money remittance to allow clients from financial institutions such as MFIs<\/span> to pay off loans and make deposits and transfer money from their savings account to their Mobile Money account,\u201d MTN<\/span> Rwanda\u2019s head of mobile money Albert Kinuma<\/span> said.<\/p>\n

Millicom<\/span> International Cellular\u2019s Tigo<\/span> Rwanda and Rwandatel<\/span> are in the process of launching mobile money transfer services too.<\/p>\n

Remittance charges<\/p>\n

Sending money through the MTN<\/span> service attracts a fee of Rwf250<\/span> ($0.42) for any transaction between Rwf1<\/span>,500 ($2.6) and Rwf300<\/span>,000 ($504) for those registered while the transaction cost varies between Rwf600<\/span> ($0.90) and Rwf4<\/span>,000 ($6) for the unregistered.<\/p>\n

However, users can only send between Rwf1<\/span>,500 ($2.6) and Rwf<\/span> 500,000($804) \u2014 the limit set by the National Bank of Rwanda for funds transfer through the service.<\/p>\n

Currently, the product, in which MTN<\/span> Rwanda invested over $2 million, also allows users to buy airtime and pay for electricity upon registration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mobile Money arena is still in its infancy,\u201d said Mr Kinuma<\/span> adding that MTN<\/span> Rwanda is exploring possibilities of extending the service to enable transactions across the border.<\/p>\n

According to BNR<\/span> director of payment systems John Bosco<\/span> Sebabi<\/span>, while MTN\u2019s<\/span> Mobile Money has registered tremendous progress, services offered on MTN\u2019s<\/span> Mobile Money need to be brought onto the national electronic payment platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the value stored in the telephone can actually be used to pay for goods and services without necessarily picking up cash at the agent or, if it is transferable onto accounts at the bank, the unbanked<\/span> can stop using cash,\u201d Mr Sebabi<\/span> said.<\/p>\n

Mr Sesabi<\/span> added that the bank\u2019s strategy of modernising<\/span> payments systems in the country is to change Rwanda from a cash-based to a cashless<\/span> society.<\/p>\n

Earlier last month, the central bank licensed the country\u2019s second mobile operator Tigo<\/span> Rwanda to provide a mobile payment service (Tigo<\/span> Cash). The company is set to launch the service by end of this year.<\/p>\n

As part of modernising<\/span> the national payment system, the central bank has begun implementing the Rwanda Integrated Payments Processing System, which is geared towards making payment systems in the country efficient and reliable.<\/p>\n

According to Mr Sebabi<\/span>, the system will support new and innovative payment instruments and systems such as mobile money.<\/p>\n

\u201cA mobile phone is owned by many people, thus the growth of cellular phones supersedes the growth of usual bank accounts. The growth of mobile money is thus promising and it is a good channel for electronic payments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to money remittances, MTN<\/span> is working with other companies such as microfinance<\/span> institutions (MFIs<\/span>) to allow users the option to pay loans and make savings deposits, transfer money from their savings account to their mobile money account, and so on.<\/p>\n

MTN<\/span> Mobile Money was officially launched in February 2010. The carrier invested over $2 million in the service developmen<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, Rwanda\u2019s mobile phone penetration stands at 35 per cent, the second lowest in the region after Burundi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN Rwanda plans to develop more applications on its mobile money transfer service to allow more transactions and tap into the booming demand for the facility. The firm announced it had transferred over Rwf12 billion ($201 million) since its launch last year with an estimated 6,000 transactions carried out daily. It has so far attracted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"byline":[277],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","byline-igihe-com-reporter"],"bylines":[{"id":277,"name":"IGIHE.com Reporter","slug":"igihe-com-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":277,"name":"IGIHE.com Reporter","slug":"igihe-com-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}