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Ecobank Uganda partners with MTN to ease accessibility to float for MTN MoMo’s 120,000++  Agents 

by The CEO Magazine Team
Ecobank Uganda’s Head Office on Plot 8A, Kafu Road, Nakasero, in Kampala. The bank has opened up its branch network and digital platforms⏤ 10 branches in Kampala, Entebbe, Mbarara & Jinja as well as 2 service centres in Kireka and Nakasero (Head Office) and 400 Xpress agency banking points to ease access to MTN MoMo float for MTN’s over 120,000 agents across the country.
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Ecobank Uganda has today announced that it has partnered with financial technology firm, MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited (MTN MoMo) to enable mobile money traders, merchants, and consumers to access electronic cash commonly known as float at any of Ecobank’s branches and Digital solutions (Omni Lite and Omni Plus) countrywide. 

“We are delighted to partner with the largest and most subscribed financial technology company in Uganda, to ease access to mobile money float in our effort to enable our business and individual customers to #GoForMore.  This partnership is in line with Ecobank’s strategic pillar of partnership to scale. At Ecobank, as we drive Uganda to the global map under our regional solutions, we empower the customer and businesses/traders to harness the potential in their aspiration and trade through our digitisation and superior customer experience,” said Emmanuel Kikoni, Head of Cash Management. 

He said that MTN Mobile Money agents and merchants in need of MTN money float will access the services in four main ways:

  1. Branch/over-the-counter through banking halls: The cashiers will receive the customer’s money and avail float on their mobile money line. The customer will receive an instant SMS notification to confirm that float has been allocated to them. The branch touch point will service both account holders and non-account holders. 
  2. Internal Funds Transfer: Suitable for customers of Ecobank. A customer will make a request for a float purchase by completing the bank’s funds transfer template. The Bank will accordingly allocate float if the customer’s account is regular, active, and sufficiently funded. 
  3. Inward RTGS / EFT: A non-account holder can transfer funds from their bank to purchase float at Ecobank by quoting the beneficiary account number as 2310412546 and quoting their agent line under the purpose of remittance. 
  4. Ecobank Internet Banking: Suitable for customers of Ecobank⏤ a customer will make a request for a float purchase by selecting MTN through the Ecobank Omni-Lite, and Omni-Plus digital channels for the float purchase menu quoting their agent line for validation and subsequent payment.
Emmanuel Kikoni, Head of Cash Management at Ecobank

The service serves an ecosystem comprising super dealers of float, fintechs and mobile money agents. The initial availability of service will be available at the branches, inward RTGS and Ecobank Online for the bank’s account holders (business or individual). This comes at a time when the fintech industry is innovating and driving partnerships for financial inclusion with high agility. The fintech space recorded 1.2 billion mobile money transactions in Q1’22 alone (UCC, March 2022 Report). This service will drive affordable and easy access to e-cash (float) with the bank’s multiple touch points.

The transaction services include Person to Person (P2P) transfers, utility and merchant payments, gaming, school fees payments as well as new services like stock/share purchases. This service is available for MTN mobile money regular users, agents that service day-to-day mobile money needs, franchise partners who manage a territory of agents, corporate partners such as financial technology companies who have regular need for float, and super dealers who, like Ecobank Uganda, are supervised financial institutions.

The beneficiaries are required to have a registered and active MTN mobile money sim card, cash or float depending on the service required.