BANK OF UGANDA TAKES OVER REGULATION & CONTROL OF MOBILE MONEY BUSINESS

BANK OF UGANDA TAKES OVER REGULATION & CONTROL OF MOBILE MONEY BUSINESS

According to the press release on Bank of Uganda website, effective from yesterday 24th May 2021, Mobile money business is regulated under Bank of Uganda not UCC which governs telecom services. Which means, all Mobile Money business may need to subscribe to deposit protection fund to protect the customers’ funds. It is not clear how this is going to be effected though, we are still waiting for further instructions from Bank of Uganda. 

Both MTN and Airtel have already registered other independent entities as financial institutions with Bank of Uganda. 

In 2020, the number of registered mobile money customers in Uganda amounted to over 30.3 million. From 2015 onwards, the number of people with a mobile money account in the country increased year by year. In the third quarter of 2019, the value of mobile money transactions in Uganda corresponded to 5.2 billion U.S. dollars.

 

Most people in diaspora are now sending money back home through mobile money. It should be noted that President Museveni has been accusing the west of financing People Power through Ugandans living in diaspora sending money individually via mobile money.