NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, March 23, 2015

In a rather unusual move last week, MTN Uganda called a Press Conference, the venue of which would be Stanbic Bank Boardroom at Crested Towers in Kampala.

With high-ranking executives from both MTN and Stanbic, the bank’s Managing Director, Patrick Mweheire, opened by welcoming journalists and explaining that the briefing was being held at Stanbic to show more significance to the fact that MTN does not create – or even, keep – any of money from the MTN Mobile Money division of the telephony giant.

“Stanbic is the licensee of Mobile money; and it is the custodian of the Escrow account,” Mweheire said, before explaining that Mobile Money is treated as a key peace of the puzzle in government’s efforts towards financial inclusion, and how therefore, he added, the Central Bank treats it very seriously.

The press briefing had been called specifically to “address the inaccurate and deliberately false story” published by the Independent Magazine, a weekly Ugandan magazine owned by veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda.

The story, of which MTN, in a press release, said “is not only misleading but also a breach of the sub judice rule” was titled “Inside MTN Mobile Money Saga” and about a case currently in court.

“The article alleges that MTN created fictitious money to the value of 21 billion on its Mobile Money platform, and transferred it to its Mobile Money shops,” reads part of the press release.