Radio, Telly, Billboards and other forms of media are running either Zap Money or MTN Mobile money adverts. But this is technology some will continue shying away from but also a great tool to those who have already tried it out. You can compare this to one who uses an ATM for withdrawing but at the same time fears to deposit through an ATM. This means that they would rather go traditional i.e. walk to the banking hall and bank the money over the counter.

Zap Money is a service of sending money from a Zain Mobile phone to any other mobile phone where as MTN Mobile money is a similar service of sending money from an MTN Mobile enabled phone to any mobile phone in the country. Please note that when sending money; it does not matter which network the recipient is on.

Zap has a lot more functions as compared to MMM. You can use Zap to fuel your vehicle, access your bank account, send and receive money within East Africa and E.A we are talking of five countries i.e. Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

We are yet to establish which other functions MTN Mobile money can offer over and above sending and receiving money to anyone with a mobile phone in Uganda. Short of that, the services are great and once analyzed through the aspect of sending and receiving money, the new products are doing very well. Over 2Billion Uganda shillings has been transacted within the first two months of launching the service.

Threat to Banks
The population of people with mobile phones is three times higher than the bank account holders in the entire country. The latest statistics of people with mobile phones is at 10Million whereas bank account holders are just 3Million. This has brought in third party affiliations like Western Union who recently teamed up with Zap Money to offer their services.

Kampala Vs Up Country
In Kampala, the money transfer service is well spread across the city because, mobile vans are occasionally seen in busy places tring to register new members and answering frequently asked questions from those who are still trying to get to terms with the new service, Mobile money agents or Zap agents are in each and every corner. Unfortunately this is not the case when you get out of Kampala and you try to go upcountry. For example you might find just one branch in Kireka, followed by another in Bweyogerere, Mukono and then Lugazi. The next Mobile money agent could be in Jinja.

More benefits are yet to be realized from this service which is taking Kampala by storm. In Kenya for example, DSTV subscribers can pay their bills using Zap money.