1. Have enough money on your MTN Mobile Money Account
2. Have the correct Bill number to pay to.

Once you fulfill the above criteria, all you need is to know the current MTN Mobile Money charges, and make your bill payment either through the MTN Momo App or the *165# Mobile Money Shortcode. In this article, we guide you on how to pay bills using the MTN Mobile Money shortcode as below.

1. Dial *165#, or *185# on your phone’s dial pad.
2. Select Option 4 (Bills & Payments).
3. Choose your desired bill, for example, UMEME Touch Pay to get Yaka Tokens.
4. Enter your account number.
5. Enter the amount to Pay.
6. Enter your MTN Mobile Money PIN to confirm payment.
7. DONE: Your Bill is paid instantly. You should receive confirmation from the provider.

In summary, MTN Mobile Money allows you to pay Bills to providers such as UMEME, DSTV, GOTV, Startimes, URA, Sports Betting Companies, NWSC, among others. All you have to do isneter the correct information and amount to pay your next bill with ease.

I am reversing the transaction because i sent it to the wrong person/number by mistake, please help me reverse it.

Probably the best reversal explanation there is.

Now, to reverse mobile money to a wrong number requires that your transactions meets at least 1 of the following requirements:

• The receiver has not withdrawn the money as yet.
• Transaction must have occurred within the past 6 days. Much as 24 hours is the best timeframe.
• The Money must have been sent to an MTN Mobile Money Number.
• Transaction should be higher than UGX 500. Any amount lower, consider it a loss.

Reverse money sent to a wrong number

To reverse money sent to a wrong number using MTN Mobile money on your own, you need to initiate the reversal on your own as below:

• Dial *185#
• Select option 8 (My Account). Or dial *185*8# directly.
• Select option 7 (initiate reversal) to view the last 3 transactions on your account.
• From the list of transactions, select your target transaction by number. For example, to reverse the latest transaction, enter 1 to proceed.
• Enter your MTN Mobile Money PIN to start the reversal process.

In simple terms, the code to reverse MTN mobile money is *185*8*7#. Upon initiating your MTN Mobile Money reversal, you need to follow the steps below to receive the money back to your account.

• To complete your reversal, call the MTN customer helpline, 100, and choose **Mobile money** as your call reason to speak to a customer care agent.
• Notify the customer care agent to approve your mobile money reversal. The agent will approve your reversal and send the money back to your MTN mobile money account.

Upon approving your mobile money reversal in conjunction with the customer care support agent, you will receive your money back immediately. However, if the recipient gets notified of your reversal, chances are high that they might withdraw the money which makes your reversal impossible.

Henceforth, always keep your mobile money reversal information only between you and the customer care agents, else, you may lose your hard-earned money that may have been sent to a gold digger or fraudster that may have tricked you into sending them money.

For now, MTN Uganda needs to revise its self-reverse service to get rid remove their customer agents as middle men, at the moment, this is the only method available, but in the near future, users could raise multiple complaints against the service, hence a change in the process may redact customer care importance.

Previously, a customer was able to buy 15MBs at UGX 250, and 300MBs at UGX 2,000. But with the new changes, a customer now gets 25MBs instead of 15, and 365MBs instead of 300, at the same pricing.

This means, MTN Uganda has laid out new 2021 daily data bundles that we don’t expect to change anytime in the year. Much more like a standard, annual promotions are expected on Mobile Money transfers, and maybe, the telco could revise its weekly and monthly bundles as tokens for a campaign.

While speaking to journalists the telco CEO, Mr. Wim Vanhelleputte inked the company’s goal to offer faster speeds, and affordable data packages for every customer in the country as he said:

MTN committed to doing all it takes in terms of providing affordable data, on the best data network. And speaking in the context of the times we’re in, we hope these bundles with bigger MBs will support our customers recover from the effects of the lockdown, whether in business, education, or otherwise.

Said Wim Vanhelleputte

New MTN Uganda Daily Data Bundles Vs the OLD

As per the comparison, MTN Uganda has revised its daily data bundles by a quarter higher in a fashion similar to: the less you pay, the more you get. In simple terms, the telco has simply made a very small change to the bundles that could be irrelevant to the everyday user since the increased volume is quite close to the old data depletion cap.

In a nutshell, if you own the MTN Kamunye, or MTN Kabode phones, these bundles are for you, otherwise, if you own a smartphone, stay in the weekly, and monthly bundles league since only a small change has been made to the bundle structure. For now, we can expect a similar deduction by Airtel Uganda since customers may feel cheated with their unchanged structure.

MTN MoMo is a fintech product providing consumers and businesses with an electronic wallet by enabling instant customer-customer money transfer, utility, and essential payments as well as access to digital and financial services through a single shortcode or MY MTN App.

At the end of June 2021, MTN MoMo had 48.9 million active users and over 581,514 merchants. The service also enables businesses to accept and make payments through the Momo Pay sub-service. And now, the new partnership will enable Flutterwave to offer MTN Mobile Money as a payment method to its business customers.

Through the new partnership, MTN and Flutterwave will positively contribute to the growing trend of increased mobile money usage, and penetration in Africa through improving local economies and livelihoods as well as create opportunities for customers across the continent.

Commenting on the partnership, Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Founder and CEO of Flutterwave, said:

“Africa has one of the highest growth rates for mobile money adoption and e-commerce in the world. It makes sense that we help provide a seamless payment method to support and ensure African businesses reap the full benefits of the e-commerce boom in the region. Our goal has always been to grow a new wave of prosperity in Africa by creating more avenues for businesses in Africa to accept payments. With this partnership, we can achieve this while creating endless possibilities for our customers.”

In agreement, Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer commented on the new partnership and said:

 “As we progress on our journey to becoming the largest fintech platform in Africa, we will empower millions of businesses to embrace e-commerce in our markets to accept digital payments from MoMo consumers. We believe this is an enabler to accelerating digitized payments in Africa. Building strong ecosystems through partnerships is central to our platform strategy and we will continue to invest in expanding the reach of our platform to consumers and businesses in Africa.” 

Also, the new partnership will further expand on Flutterwave’s previous collaboration with MTN, beyond Uganda and Rwanda – with the potential of deepening the adoption of digital payments and e-commerce in Africa, a sector expected to reach $29 billion by 2022, according to Statista. 

Just like the old transaction ranges, the minimum amount a customer can withdraw is UGX 500 which attracts a UGX 330 withdraw charge. On the other hand, UGX 7,000,000 is the maximum amount a customer can withdraw with UGX 20,000 as the payable withdraw charge at an agent stall.

However, with the new withdraw charges, MTN Uganda has maxed its charges with free Senkyu Points each time a customer withdraws money. The General Manager Mobile Financial Services Stephen Mutana inked the slight reduction of withdraw charges coupled with bonus Senkyu points as one aimed at bolstering mobile money usage in Uganda as he said.

“We appreciate that many people rely on MTN MoMo to facilitate various aspects of their lives and therefore believe that this reduction in withdrawal fees increases the benefits that have made mobile money such a transformative service over the years,”

Mutana said.

Over the years, mobile money usage in Uganda has increased with the emergence of mobile credit services like MTN’s Mokash and Airtel’s Wewole. These have forced customers to ditch regular banking services, and instead rely on mobile money to save, send and receive money across the country. However, when mobile money tax was introduced in Uganda, mobile money usage dropped from its all time high with a majority of users opting for physical methods of money transfer.

Now, as per MTN’s new move to lower Withdraw fees, customers may find it attractive to transfer money with free loyalty Senkyu points that can be converted into freebies. For instance, each time a customer deposits UGX 5,000 they receive 1 point, and each time UGX 100 is spent on sending or withdraw, the customer gets 2 points in return.

So, unlike before, each time you transact using MTN Mobile Money, you are rewarded free MTN Senkyu Points which can be redeemed for free data, free voice minutes, free SMS, and free mobile money cash backs per transaction as listed on the new reduced MTN Withdraw rates.

The New Reduced MTN Mobile Money Withdraw Charges

The new charges took effect on 1st May 2021 and will stay active throughout the year as per the telco’s official communication. But if compared to the old withdraw rates, the new charges only differ by a small percentage with 5% reduced per transaction tier. Previously, UGX 350 was the set charge to withdraw UGX 500, but with a 5% reduction, the new charge is UGX 330 as the trend follows with other transaction ranges.

Now that MTN Uganda’s 2021 Withdraw charges have been reduced, we may see a similar reduction in Airtel Money charges in the coming months since the two telcos compete for the same customer base. In a like manner, other services like Africell Money, UTL’s Msente and Lyca Mobile Money may follow the same path to make mobile money the best money transfer choice for customers in Uganda.

According to MTN Uganda’s general manager mobile financial services, mobile money provides sophisticated and secure payment solutions for educational institutions to collect and manage fees transactions. Also, parents, guardians and students benefit from the convenience of paying their school dues from any location in real-time.

“Our MTN Mobile Money platform is designed in such a way that parents and guardians can pay school fees for their children safely and securely without having to leave their homes, work places or offices. It also limits the exchange of currency notes which elevates our endeavors against the covid-19 pandemic,”

Said Mutana

Although this innovation has been around for a while now, this covid-19 crisis makes it even more useful as it limits human contact which remains key in the fight against covid-19.

Jacinta Mukebezi who has been working from home since last year was impressed at how seamlessly she paid her son’s school fees last week as schools reopened their doors for Primary Four and Five pupils.

“I was worried of having to drive all the way to the bank, queue in the line yet I had a busy week. I simply called the school for my son’s student code and in a matter of minutes, I had paid his school fees without having to leave my house or drive to the bank,” Said Mukebezi

Like Mukebezi, many parents encounter several inconveniences to their schedules while paying school fees for their children. Other parents have to commute miles to the nearest bank, thereby foregoing a great portion of their daily commitments for the day which in turn impacts their income, in addition to the money and time lost in transport to and from the bank.

However, a GSMA study about Mobile Money use in Uganda revealed that Mobile money has the potential to extend the limited nature and reach of the formal financial sector.

Besides helping to organize the hitherto chaotic scene of domestic money transfers, mobile money can improve the national payments system by providing innovative ways to meet the transaction needs of ordinary people

For instance, Emmanuel Mafabi, a tomato farmer in Manafwa district doesn’t have to leave his farm to pay school fees for his four children, but instead relies on mobile money as his go to payment method.

“I pay their fees in small instalments. So if I had to go to the bank, it would mean many days of me not tending to my farm. After selling my tomatoes, I simply deposit the money on my phone and pay school fees,” He says, “Infact during school fees time, I gladly ask my clients to pay me through Mobile Money so that I simply pay school fees without touching the money.”

Catherine Akello who pays school fees for two of her nieces in Lira lauds MTN MoMo school fees platform for making the process easy for her.

“I don’t have to run around looking for bankslips nor do I risk sending money to my alcoholic brother who simply wastes the money. I directly pay to the school and that way, my nieces can attend school,” Akello says

Winnie Nansamba, a school bursar says that this mode of payment is convenient and easy for schools to work with since the notifications are captured online: “It is easier to track payments on this system as opposed to looking through stacks of paper.”

How to pay school fees using MTN Mobile Money

Mutana explains that; to pay school fees, a customer can dial *165*4*3# and selects a payment option. Once dialled, a customer is also prompted to enter the student code, which is provided by the school administration. Upon entering the code, a customer receives a prompt with the student’s name, class, and the amount due.

Once the amount due is received, a customer can then enter the amount they wish to pay and finally a secret mobile money pin to confirm payment. Once payment is received by the school, the customer then receives an SMS showing the amount paid and the balance on their account.

In a like manner, almost all top banks in Uganda now have internet and mobile banking services glued to their offers trail, but still, these require you to have an active internet connection or sufficient airtime balance in order to complete a transaction. However, you can’t deposit money with both internet and mobile banking.

Hence, MTN mobile money stands out as the best choice to directly deposit and withdraw money on your bank account without worrying about physical ques at any bank branch. However, to deposit and withdraw money on your bank account using MTN mobile money, you should keep in mind transaction charges that base on your total transaction amount.

As a standard, you can deposit and withdraw money on your bank account using MTN mobile money by either using the Yello telco’s *165# shortcode, or the MY MTN App to easily deploy a secure connection with your bank. However, your transacting phone number must be associated with a bank account in order to initiate a connection with your mobile money account, and once propagated, here is how you can easily deposit money to your bank account.

How to Deposit Money on your bank account using MTN Mobile Money

• Dial *185# or *165#
• Off the main menu list, choose option 6 (Financial Services)
• Then select option 1 (Bank Deposit)
• Choose your destination bank
• If your number is registered for mobile banking, your active accounts will be displayed
• Then, choose your preferred account to deposit to
• Then, enter amount to deposit from your mobile money account
• Finally, enter your mobile money PIN to confirm deposit to the associated bank account
• DONE: Your money will be deposited to the bank account from your MTN mobile money account

How to Withdraw money on your bank account using MTN Mobile Money

• Dial *185# or *165#
• Off the main options list, choose option 6 (financial services)
• Then select option 2 (Bank Withdraw)
• Then, choose your associated bank
• If your number is registered for mobile banking, your active accounts will be displayed
• Choose a bank account to withdraw from
• Then, enter amount to withdraw from your bank account
• Finally, enter your PIN to confirm withdraw
• DONE: Your MTN mobile money account will be credited with money from your bank account

As a loans predeterminant, you suffer a small charge each time you borrow MTN airtime or data on your account. Proportionally, the telco places a small percentage as its payable fee deducted when you’re paying back.

In a similar manner, MTN Mokash is the cash equivalent of borrowing airtime and data. With Mokash, you can borrow Mobile Money cash and payback later at a constant interest rate of 9%.

But contrary to borrowing money with MTN Mokash, when your borrow MTN airtime, no re-payment deadlines are placed on your loaned amount, and so, you can pay back any time by crediting your account. Nonetheless, here is how you can borrow MTN airtime and data in Uganda.

How you can Borrow MTN Airtime in Uganda

• Dial *146#
• Choose your preferred Airtime amount to borrow
• Once you select a preferred amount, your account will be credited with the requested airtime figure.
• DONE: To check for your airtime balance dial *131#

How to Borrow MTN Data

• Dial *146#
• From the list of options, select option 5 (Borrow Data Bundle)
• Then, From the list of Data offers, choose your preferred data bundle
• Once selected, your account will be topped up with the data offer
• DONE: To check your remaining data balance, dial *131# or *150*1*4*1#

How you can Borrow MTN Voice Bundles in Uganda

• Dial *146#
• From the main menu, select option 4 (Borrow Voice Bundle)
• You will be presented with available voice bundle offers
• From the list, choose your preferred offer by number
• Once selected, your account will be topped up with your voice bundle
• DONE: To check your active voice bundle balance, dial *131#

All in all, you can easily borrow MTN Airtime by meeting the telco’s minimum standards that are often maxed at having an active account for the past 3 months. Nevertheless, you need to keep note of the telco’s *146# Shortcode as the available route to easily borrow MTN Data or airtime.

Earlier this year, MTN Uganda in partnership with SIMFY Africa launched Ayoba as a new data-free (Zero-rated) App for customers to securely communicate using Smartphones in a fashion similar to that of popular Instant Messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram.

The difference with the app is the fact that it’s built by Africans to be used by Africans throughout its entire validity timeframe. So, with the new feature, Ayoba takes a step ahead of IM Platforms like WhatsApp as the first to Integrate an in-App sending feature.

While revealing the new in-App Mobile Money feature, Susan Kayemba – the Senior Manager MTN Digital services noted that the telco and SIMFY will continue modifying Ayoba to fully Integrate customer telecommunication needs.

“We are happy to inform our customers that they can now send money and receive money within the ayoba app while they chat. They can also listen to music or play games and soon iOS device users will be able to access the ayoba super app and become part of this revolutionary communication experience.”

Susan Kayemba – Senior Manager Digital Services, MTN Uganda

Send and Receive MTN Mobile Money using the Ayoba App – Getting Started

To Send and Receive MTN Mobile Money using the Ayoba App, first, you need to make sure your Ayoba registered number is an MTN number (for the sender), If receiving, your network carrier doesn’t matter since MTN allows sending money to all top telcos including Airtel, Africell, UTL.

Once your registered Ayoba App number is associated with an MTN Mobile Money account, you’ll then be able to send money through the App, then the receiver will receive a notification of the sent amount, and here is how you can get started with sending money on Ayoba.

• Download and Install the Ayoba App or update your existing version
• Within the App, Select a Contact you wish to Send Money
• From the Open Chat Window, tap the attachment symbol
• On the list of tabbed displayed options, Locate money (last option)
• Then Choose Send Momo
• From the Displayed contact page, Enter Amount, and a Message for the receiver, then Tap Send

• When a Confirmation Popup appears, tap continue to enter your Mobile Money PIN off-App
• Enter Your MTN Mobile Money PIN when prompted from your registered SIMCard, or dial *185*8# and select approvals to enter your PIN.
• Once Approved, Money will be sent to your contact (Receiver) with a notification of the amount and message in the Ayoba App
• Done: The receiver will receive a Mobile Money message with the received amount and an Ayoba notification as confrimation of Money-In.

Just like that, you can continuously send money to your contacts, friends, and family through the Ayoba App without necessarily cramming their Phone Number for manual sending through the My MTN App or the *185# MTN Shortcode.

As an advantage, the new Ayoba Mobile Money sending feature helps you to send money to contacts and notify them within the App itself with a confirmation of the sent amount.

Just in case the receiver has a Mokash loan and the money is chopped in the process, your Ayoba notification marks as a confirmation of money sent to the receiver’s number.

So, on top of the ability to send MTN Mobile money using the Ayoba App, the App allows you to send and receive instant messages, listen to music, play games, send Photos and Videos, communicate in local languages, among other features.

Currently, Ayoba is available on Android Smartphones only, but as per the confirmation from MTN Uganda, the App will soon be available to Apple IOS users on iPhones. But For now, the ability to send and receive money makes Ayoba a must-have App for not just secure communications, but also good business leads.

Showmax is an online streaming service that ranks with a uni­que combination of hit African content, exclusive international series, kids’ shows, live sports channels, and Movie Originals hosted on the platform.

With availability in over 70 countries including Uganda, Showmax is available on both Smartphones and Desktop devices like Laptops, Computers, Smart TVs, among others. For affordability, the service is available as Showmax (General entertainment) and Showmax Pro.

During the MTN MoMo payment reveal, Multichoice Uganda’s Head of Marketing Collin Asiimwe inked that, Showmax is the first online streaming service to offer local payment options, and this is a sign of the company’s commitment to Uganda’s home entertainment landscape.

Our commitment to continually drive value, proximity and access to great entertainment remains unwavering. This is part of the reason why it wasn’t just important to launch Showmax in Uganda, but to also work towards making it accessible to as many Ugandans as possible through our partnership with the MTN MOMO service

Colin Asiimwe –– Head of Marketing, Multichoice Uganda

A 2020 report published by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) revealed that Mobile Money accounts have grown to over 25million out of 36million active mobile subscribers across Uganda.

Mobile Money accounts were estimated at 24.7 Million in December 2019, and by March 2020, 25.4 Million was the total number of subscribers with more bullish spikes arising from the COVID19 pandemic period that has forced users to embrace Cashless as a normal payment method.

So, Multichoice Uganda’s choice of offering mobile money as a payment method on Showmax is aimed at making the subscription process easy for every customer on the platform.

As part of enhancing the Showmax experience as well, we have also converted the currency billing on the website to UGX. This is also part of the journey simplification for our customers where their credit and debit card payments will now be billed in UGX instead of the previously used USD currency

Asiimwe Added

Showmax Package Prices in UGX payable via MTN Momo

Showmax Supported Devices

• Smart TVs
• Smartphones,
• Tablets,
• Computers,
• Media players
• Gaming consoles (Xbox, PS4, PS5)

On Showmax Pro, up to 6 user profiles can be created to separate viewing experiences for every logged-in user on the same account with a cap of 5 simultaneous connections. Additionally, Parental control can also be enabled on created profiles to easily filter content by Age.

Personalization and creation of multiple accounts can all be done by visiting www.showmax.com which presents a 14-day free trial for first-time customers before the normal service package prices take charge with Mobile Money as a valid payment method.

Hence, the new Multichoice reveal comes as a package spicer that will help customers limit online usage of Bank debit cards, and instead reload a Showmax package by using MTN Mobile Money as their preferred payment method.