Business paralysed as MTN upgrades Mobile Money

Mobile telecommunication service provider, MTN Rwanda, over the weekend began upgrading its mobile money platform but the exercise has so far caused misery for its agents and clients across the country. Several businesses for the past three days have been at a standstill as dealers cannot deposit, send or receive money. MTN informed its customers through SMS last Friday that the service wouldn’t be accessed on Saturday and Sunday but instabilities in the system have extended into the week. Aine Macure, a mobile money agent in Kacyiru Sector, said that although there was need to upgrade the service, the delay had affected her business. “I cannot access the money on my account. I usually serve 35 clients per day but for the past few days, I have only been depending on SIM swaps and selling airtime cards which fetch very little profits,” she said. Users of the service are equally irate. “I normally transact business using my phone. I am now stranded and I have nothing to do. My prayer is that they work fast to allow us resume business,” said Jeophat Tuyizere, a trader in Kacyiru. When contacted, MTN officials said they are aware of the problem and are working hard to fix it. “Our engineers are doing everything possible to solve the problem. It’s just taking longer than we expected but it will be fine,” Yvonne Manzi Makolo, the chief marketing officer, said yesterday. With the rollout of mobile money agents country-wide and introduction of innovative products that offer timely money transactions, many people prefer mobile money to banks. MTN Rwanda was the first in the country to launch the service and has been joined by Tigo’s Tigo Cash and Airtel’s Airtel Money. National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) statistics indicate that as of March this year, over 1.7 million subscribers were registered for the mobile money service with different service providers. The figure was at 639,000 subscribers at the end of last year, with MTN Rwanda having seen over Rwf90b transacted through the platform. “We wanted to increase the speed at which people access mobile money,” said Makolo.