African operator MTN Uganda has registered 890,000 users of its MobileMoney service and claims to be set to hit 2 million by the end of this year. By the end of 2012 it expects to have increased this to 3.5 million.

Speaking at this afternoon’s session entitled ‘New Success Stories: Untapped Areas of Growth and Opportunities for Mobile Money’, Richard Mwami (pictured), head of mobile money at the operator, said that the key to success has been understanding the rapidly growing market and customer requirements. “We have taken a direct sales approach to educate and provide access to subscribers who are unfamiliar with electronic financial services. Across Uganda we have 2,500 agents and more than 1,000 MobileMoney service outlets to ensure customers understand and can take full advantage of the services offered to them.”

MTN’s mobile money service has been developed with Fundamo and has already attracted 16 percent of its total subscriber base. Some statistics of note include: US$195 million through the platform since launch in March 2009; 11.8 million transactions since launch in March 2009; US$21 average transaction (the average Ugandan person lives on under US$1 a day);  1005 active agents and more than 2,500 direct sales reps; more than 1,600 MTN MobileMoney service outlets; and approximately 60 percent of transfers are to recipients in rural areas – serving the unbanked. 

MTN MobileMoney is a SIM-powered service, meaning it can claim to safely and securely encrypt highly sensitive and confidential data, such as bank account numbers and PINs, transaction records and other data.