If you have tried sending money from Airtel to MTN Uganda and vice versa in the recent past, you could have noticed error messages such as “The number you are sending to is not active” or “invalid code”. While it was not clear whether it was a faulty system or a failed transaction, any efforts to reach out to the companies was not fruitful.
However, Airtel Uganda issued a statement that interoperability between the two had been suspended pending a technical decision.
MTN Uganda has not yet issued any statement yet, but when we contacted the customer care, their response seemed to suggest that it’s no longer possible to send money across the two networks. The only solution, which seems to be in the pipeline, is you having to send money as non mobile user.
Is it the promos causing the frustration?
Both MTN and Airtel have actively running promotions geared towards pushing their customers to do more mobile money transactions – especially sending money to other customers on the same network.
Airtel was the first to launch the ‘Sukuma Cash campaign’ subsequently dropping charges by 60% on money sent to as low as UGX 100 and as much as UGX 1,000. The telco also increased the charges on money sent from your Airtel Money wallet to your Bank account, while greatly cutting the rates on utility bill payments and ‘other payments’.
MTN Uganda would follow suite, surely in retaliation, lowering the rates to as low as UGX 50 if you send between UGX 500 and 2,500 from the UGX 100 that was charged initially. Sending between UGX 5,000 and 60,000 would call for a UGX 500 charge; while sending between UGX 60,000 and 7,000,000 will charge you just UGX 1,000.
It is likely that the competition and need to prove supremacy reigned over the lesser need of cross-network sending of money. These promotions are the louder way of telling a subscriber that if you stick to our network, you will send money to people on the same network at a much cheaper cost.
But do we forget that these promotions run for only a few weeks?
Even the mobile money apps are down
Similar complaints are raised by Airtel Money app and myMTN app users who suggest failure to access mobile money services through the apps.
We await official communication from both parties on the issue
