By Mark Kawalya
New telco player LycaMobile is set to introduce its mobile money system that will be marketed as Lyca Money. The service will be regulated by the Bank of Uganda as is the case with other telcos. Currently the firm is internally testing Lyca Money before it launches the service fully.
Mobile money is an electronic financial service that allows users with mobile phones to send, receive, store and deposit money on their digital mobile wallets. This e-money system is a good, convenient alternative to mainstream bank accounts and has power to reach last mile users due to only requiring a basic mobile phone to utilize.
However, one wonders if Lyca Money stands a chance in the already crowded mobile money industry and against established players such as like MTN, Airtel, Safeboda and Wave. To sign up for the service users require formal identification documents, that they submit to a Lyca Money agent who will grant them a new sim card that gives them access to the Lyca Money service.
Current Lyca Mobile users will sign up for the service by dialing *165# to start using the service. Some of the features that Lyca Money will carry include:
- Send and receive Money to and from other users.
- Deposit and withdraw money from Lyca Money Agents.
- Wallet to Bank services.
- Cardless ATM withdrawals.
- Payment for the Lyca Mobile Postpaid Services Bills.
- Purchase Lyca Mobile airtime, Voice, and Data Service bundles for yourself and others.
- Pay utility bills.
- Pay taxes to URA and license fees property rates to the city and municipal authorities.
Minimum transaction amount for Lyca Money stands at UGX500 while the maximum singular transaction amount has been capped at UGX3,000,000. Maximum wallet daily balance has been set to UGX10,000,000 which is the same amount as the maximum transaction per day.
However there has been no mention of withdrawal rates as the service is still under testing and is yet to be officially launched. The service will have cross compatibility enabling users to send money to other mobile users on different networks.
Subscribers will also have the option to transfer money to their bank accounts using a wallet protocol that they register to their account.
