East African Business Week

Kampala, Uganda - MTN Uganda since the introduction of Mobile Money has been boasting of growing customer numbers however over that last three months the service has wrecked havoc to customers.
Constant glitches in the system have led to increased customer complaints with some of them stranded with money on their accounts.
"The mobile money business has been bringing in many clients, however with the system down, this has greatly affected our business," noted MTN Mobile Money agent with Nilecom one of the leading MTN outlets in Uganda.
Significantly though have been the gloomy faces of traders in Kampala who rely on mobile money to receive and send payments for goods and services. The traders include those in downtown Kampala, those along Kampala road and those in city suburbs like Wandegeya and Ntinda.
New registrations, Mobile money Transactions, and airtime top-up via Mobile Money have been intermittent yet MTN has had a delayed response in informing clients in the breakdown of this service.
The solution is used to pay utility bills, TV subscriptions, payment of salaries and dividends, allowances, bonuses, school fees and purchase goods among others. This can show the scale of affected clients who are bearing the brunt.
Simba Telecom which has streamlined itself into more of mobile money bank, has seen a sharp drop in business because of the absence of MTN Mobile Money. Simba outlets usually have queues at tellers of customers withdrawing, depositing and sending money. The mobile solution has become an integral part people because of its ease of access unlike other money transfer solutions.
According to MTN officials, MTN Mobile Money has about1.6 million registered users with a whopping $90m monthly transaction.
MTN should have seen the technical challenges and slowly upgraded its systems to avoid glitches that would seriously dent its bottom-line considering that this service wrecks over 40% of its revenues.