MTN Uganda is pushing MoMoPay, a mobile money-based payment solution that enables merchants easily accept payments from users who have Mobile money accounts with the telecom. The product has been around albeit being nameless. MTN’s pitch to you is that there are zero charges when you use MoMoPay to pay your carpenter, the cake lady or the barber. So instead of sending them Mobile money which attracts sending charges, you can instead use MoMoPay. Hmm, clever.
How it works
Business owners or merchants must signup with MTN where they receive a merchant code. This code is displayed at the checkout counter which is how you get to know it. Then you use your phone to dial 1653# where you enter the merchant’s code, amount and then your pin. Done. Payment is made to your business owner at zero charge on your side. For every received payment the merchant will be charged 1% of the value of the payment for the Individual Merchant and 2% for the Business Merchant. MTN says customers use MoMoPay for free. Now if you compare to card check out options from the banks, MTN’s MoMoPay is cheaper. Banks charge customers 3% of the value of the transaction when you use your Visa debit card. In some cases, the merchant will even charge you an extra 3% which the banks charge them. I remember being charged a whooping 6% on my Barclays card at Jubilee dental when I opted to use my card to pay for the hospital bill. MoMoPay also competes against several other mobile money implementations such as DTB’s EasyPay or Yo Payments.
