MTN Uganda, the country’s biggest telco, and a subsidiary of the MTN Group in partnership with Kenya’s NCBA Group PLC to introduce an overdraft facility via MTN Mobile Money.
Dubbed MoMoAdvance, will allow customers pre-authorisation of transactions for payment to be made later.
The facility has been launched following a pilot program conducted in 2020.
Users will be charged an access fee of 2.75 per cent of the amount borrowed and a daily interest of 0.5 per cent on the outstanding balance for a maximum of 45 days.
“MTN MoMoAdvance is a product that we have been working on for some time with our partners from NCBA Bank. We are happy to finally roll it out to all our customers and we believe that it will give them the convenience to transact seamlessly beyond their wallet balances during times of need then pay back later,” Stephen Mutana, the General Manager MTN Mobile Financial Services said.
MTN Uganda says the MoMoAdvance is not a loan facility.
“Unlike the MoKash loan facility where MTN customers can borrow money within their credit limits and payback in 30 days as they wish, MoMoAdvance on the other hand is an overdraft facility that allows customers to use more money than they actually have on their accounts, and the overdraft amount is automatically deducted the next time a customer gets funds on their MoMo account,” adds Mr Mutana.
MoMoAdvance is similar to Safaricom’s overdraft product, Fuliza, launched in January 2019. Fuliza is offered in partnership with KCB Group and NCBA Group.
Safaricom made Ksh 2.8 billion from Fuliza from March to September 2021 according to its financial reports.
