MTN Uganda has eliminated some charges on its mobile money platform to help spur greater use of digital transactions and discourage the use of cash as a way to potentially slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. The company, which has 8 million mobile money users out of a total 13 million mobile phone subscribers, said it will not levy any fees on money sent between customers on its platform, Uganda has so far recorded nine cases of COVID-19. The offer “is designed to reduce the risk of transmission by avoiding the physical exchange of currency notes,” MTN said in a statement issued late on Tuesday. The move follows a similar approach in Kenya where last week the central bank announced measures to encourage the use of mobile money instead of cash to reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus in the country.
SOURCE: REUTERS AFRICA
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