Officials from MTN and Africell pose for a photo at an event held at Mistil hotel to announce the partnership Africell Customers will from today be able to buy airtime and data bundles from MTN mobile money agents in a new initiative launched Tuesday between the two telecoms.
Speaking at the official announcement of the new assisted payment initiative, Alex Wekoye, the Commercial Director- Sales and distribution, Africell Uganda said the initiative will give more airtime and data bundle loading options for its customers nationwide especially in areas where Africell has limited physical presence
“We are leveraging on MTN’s investment in infrastructure particularly the mobile money initiative, that has a wider reach nationwide. This is being done in the spirit of collaboration other than direct competition that the Ugandan telecommunication sector is increasingly adopting” he said.
According to Wekoye, the initiative will allow Africell customers to buy airtime time of all amounts, data bundles and Africell social media bundles like Swift and 4G bundles on their phones from any MTN mobile money outlet nationwide
Speaking about the new partnership, the MTN Uganda CEO Vim Vanhelleputte, said MTN has been acting as a supermarket for a lot of payment services and hence Africell airtime is the newest edition to the MTN Assisted Payments initiative
“We like to think of Africell as a partner other than a competitor, we are already partnering on different backdoor services like site sharing and many more. our main aim aim as the sector is to offer reliable communication services to all Ugandans and hence the need for these partnerships” he said
The MTN Mobile Money top-up option for africell joins a number of other top-up solutions already put in place to narrow the distance between the company and its subscribers. The other top-up solutions conclude with banks like stanbic and DFCU which enables customers to purchase airtime through the ATM interface, payway and many more.
“However all our Africell outlets will remain available for customers who require the wider range of africell services like sim registration and replacement, 4G devices, phones and much more” added Wekoye.
This collaboration comes after a directive from the regulator, Uganda Communications Commission to telecommunications operators to share and optimize infrastructure.
