Centenary Bank & Airtel Uganda close mobile wallet service agreement

Centenary Bank has partnered with Airtel Uganda to officially launch the Mobile Wallet service, an innovative financial service that enables the bank’s customers to access, deposit and withdraw money from their bank accounts using their phones.

The Mobile wallet service is an additional feature on the bank’s 24 / 7 mobile banking platform dubbed CenteMobile. Other financial services on the CenteMobile platform include; transfer of funds, payment of utility bills (e.g. NWSC, electricity on Yaka and postpaid, pay TV), request for mini statements, and fundraising among others.

At the launch of the service, Fabian Kasi, Managing Director Centenary Bank noted that the innovation was a great opportunity for the Bank to simplify and make banking more convenient for the everyday person by utilizing the latest and best technology available.

“We realized that there is a need to serve more people with less structured costs. These partnerships have transformed the industry,” he added, revealing that about Sh8bn is transacted from centenary bank accounts to phones and about Shs4bn from phones to bank accounts.

With Mobile Wallet, Airtel Money customers who have accounts with Centenary Bank will be able to deposit mobile money directly to their phones.

Airtel Uganda MD, Mr. Tom Gutjhar said, “We are proud to be associated with Centenary bank, each development and partnership that involves Airtel Money is ultimately designed to ease the lives of our mutual customer. We look forward to forging more of these innovative partnerships and ultimately making Airtel Money the number one partner of choice in mobile banking,”

To access the Mobile Wallet service, one has to be registered with CenteMobile first. CenteMobile can be accessed on any type of phone and as an application on smart phones.

MyMTN: A New Way to Experience MTN

New mobile app for both smart and feature phones offers new way to use mobile money and other MTN services

MTN Uganda launched a new mobile app for all smart phone users. MyMTN has been designed to work on most smart phones in the market, including Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Windows phone. The MyMTN mobile app has been designed to offer a better user experience to high value customers who already enjoy a seamless user experience across various service applications

Smartphone users can download the MyMTN App free of charge from all major App stores, including Google Play, Blackberry, Windows Phone Store and iOS App Store. The good news is that users do not need to have an active data bundle to use the app.

The MyMTN app is yet another step in MTN’s journey to enable world class digital innovations to its customers to offer a seamless customer experience.

The MyMTN app supports two major service categories; MTN Mobile Money and MySelfService which gives users absolute control to manage all their MTN services. Through the app, MTN customers can buy airtime, data bundles, check their balances and access various promotional offers currently accessed via USSD. With an improved experience offered through the MyMTN app, customers no longer need to remember a wide range of USSD codes to use MTN services.

“The upsurge in data consumption and Internet usage across all customer segments has necessitated a substantial investment in our network infrastructure to guarantee that our subscribers enjoy a consistent network experience across the country”.

“We understand that the customers’ needs are varied and wide ranging, and that is one of the key reasons we are always coming up with innovations that meet the customers’ needs.” said Chief Marketing Officer, Mapula Bodibe.

We are confident and pleased that our subscribers will reap the full benefits. We encourage both new and existing MTN customers to download the MyMTN app and we’re confident that our customers will enjoy the benefits of managing their services. We have no doubt that our world class infrastructure will ensure an improved experience for our customers; what better way to enjoy access to the internet than on MTN’s a World-Class Network”.

Access to either Mobile Money or MySelfService requires the user to input a password, guaranteeing security for both service subscriptions, airtime purchases and mobile money transactions.

Now You Can Receive Money from Rwanda Using MTN Mobile Money

In yet another exciting development in mobile money innovation, MTN Uganda announced the launch of cross-border mobile money transfer services between Rwanda and Uganda.

This new Mobile Money service will allow customers in both countries to transact via Mobile Money without having to change currencies.

The service enables an MTN customer in Rwanda to send money in Rwandese Francs to a recipient in Uganda who will receive it in Uganda Shillings. The recipient has to be a customer of MTN Uganda to receive the transfer.

Currently, the service only allows customers in Uganda to receive money from Rwanda.

“Technology is helping us eliminate national borders, enabling a unified digital and mobile financial services world. We are delighted to offer a solution that further enhances this agenda. We also trust that our customers will find it easy, fast and a more convenient means of transferring funds internationally,” said Mr. Phrase Lubega, MTN Uganda’s General Manager in charge of Mobile Financial Services.

This year, the MTN Mobile Money ecosystem has expanded extensively, with the launch of a number of innovative solutions that integrate Mobile Money into the fabric of our society, making it an integral part of our customer’s lives.

They include the payment of fees and taxes to the Kampala Capital City Authority, payment of fuel to Shell petrol stations nationwide to the transfer of bank transactions from one’s bank account to the mobile money wallet as well as online purchases, through the ‘Hellofood’ and ‘Jumia’ online shops. Mobile Money is changing the day-to-day lives of MTN customers for the better.

By June 30th 2015, MTN Uganda had recorded a 12.8 percent increase in Mobile Money subscribers, from 7.3 million (at the end of 2014) to 8.2 million.

Emirates Announces Capacity Increase to St Petersburg

Emirates reinforces its commitment to Russia by announcing the upgrade of the aircraft servicing the St Petersburg route to a Boeing 777-300ER, increasing capacity and offering an enhanced on board experience.

Six weekly EK175/176 flights, from Dubai to St Petersburg, will be operated with an Emirates Boeing 777-300ER from 25 October 2015, instead of an Airbus 330-200. The up-gauge will be applied to a seventh flight per week on the 1 December 2015.

By replacing the A330-200 with the Boeing 777-300ER, Emirates will be adding a capacity increase of 50% to the route, which launched in November 2011. The new aircraft will also introduce the Emirates First Class Suite, a first for the route, plus 42 lie-flat Business Class seats and 310 spacious Economy Class seats.

As the only airline to offer First Class Suites from St Petersburg, Emirates is bringing a new level of comfort and quality to the market, previously unavailable from St Petersburg on a commercial airline.

“Since 2011, when Emirates launched flights to and from St Petersburg, we have carried over 500,000 passengers on the route. Counting these figures alongside our double-daily flights to Moscow, takes the total to over 3.6million passengers traveling on Emirates to and from Russia in the 12 years of operation, making it an important market not only for Emirates, but for Dubai as a destination,” said Thierry Aucoc, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations – Europe and Russian Federation.

“Operating these flights to and from St Petersburg on a 777-300ER brings consistency to the Russian customer. Whether traveling from St Petersburg or Moscow, they will be confident that the level of experience they receive is in line with what is expected from Emirates.”

On board the Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, passengers in all three cabins can enjoy more than 2,000 channels of the latest movies, TV shows and music from around the world on the award-winning ice inflight entertainment system, all while enjoying specially created gourmet cuisine served by Emirates’ multi-lingual cabin crew. As with all Emirates flights, passengers traveling on the route will be able to accumulate Skywards miles and benefit from a generous baggage allowance of 30kg in Economy Class, 40kg in Business Class and 50kg in First Class.

Emirates’ flight EK175 departs Dubai International Airport at 09:20 and arrives in St Petersburg at 14:35. The outbound flight EK176 departs from St Petersburg at 16:35 and arrives in Dubai at 23:45.

From Dubai, Russian passengers are able to easily connect to Emirates’ vast network of destinations in Asia and beyond, including the new service to Bali, the Thai island of Phuket and exciting cities in Australia. From Asia, Middle East, Australia and Africa, St Petersburg is just a short stop in Dubai away, offering a convenient option for business and leisure passengers to connect with Russia.

Airtel Uganda, AIESEC sign Digital Youth Empowerment Agreement

Telecom giant, Airtel Uganda has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Association of Students in Economic and Commercial Sciences (AIESEC) to carry out a Digital Youth Empowerment Programme and training in ten universities in Uganda.

AIESEC, an international platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership potential, is the world’s largest student-run organization that focuses on developing students on a global scale into responsible and entrepreneurial leaders. It was started in Uganda in 1996 at Makerere University and currently has close to 300 members in seven universities.

Mr. Tom Gutjahr, the Managing Director Airtel Uganda expressed his excitement towards this partnership, adding that he believes AIESEC is for focused individuals who are open to working in other cultures, getting exposure and using it to develop their own countries.

“Airtel Uganda has and will always welcome ideas that focus on empowerment of the youth, not only by providing them with better telecommunications solutions, but also by giving them opportunities to better their loves through the kind of exposure that AIESEC provides,” he added.

“In the core of our leadership development that we provide to young people, we are collaborating with Airtel to bring about this perspective of Digital Youth Empowerment which is such a needed thing for young leaders today,” commented Ms. Marie Kvendset, the President of AIESEC in Uganda during the signing ceremony, adding that last year alone, AIESEC brought approximately 300 people to Uganda under their exchange program.

As part of the MoU, Airtel Uganda will be offering 3G capable devices - Wingles (Wifi Dongles) and Smart Watchestosome students at the various universities during the programme. These unique products will demonstrate Airtel Uganda’s leadership and innovation in the mobile data space as it tailors telecommunications solutions to the students.

Below is a schedule of the confirmed dates and venues for the activations;

9th Sept: Ndejje University - Kampala Campus 

10th Sept: UMU – Cardinal Wamala Auditorium

11th Sept: MUST - Main conference hall

14th Sept: MUBS – Walusansa Hall

15th Sept: KYU – Dining Hall West End

16th Sept: UCU – Library

17th Sept: Cavendish & IUEA – Basement Room 1

18th Sept: MUK – CEDAT Conference Hall

About Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 3 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed DSL broadband, IPTV, DTH, enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 328 million customers across its operations at the end of May 2015. To know more please visit, www.airtel.com