Mobile money transactions hit Shs80 trillion

Kampala. The volume of mobile transaction has hit Shs80 trillion in 10 years, according to Finance State Minister in charge of Planning David Bahati.
Mobile money has demonstrated rapid growth in the last 10 years, demonstrating a new wave of financial transacting.
In a brief statement yesterday during the Africa Blockchain Conference in Kampala, Mr Bahati said technology is a prerequisite and the future of development in Uganda and Africa.
“When mobile money first started people were resistant to adopt it, today Shs80 trillion (about $15b) is transacted through mobile money,” he said.
Bank of Uganda introduced mobile money payment system in Uganda in 2009. The business model involves a partnership between a mobile money operator and a commercial bank.
Last week, MTN told Daily Monitor that its mobile money platform had hit Shs30 trillion in the last 10 years since it started operating.
However, mobile money has so far been restricted to domestic remittances, basic retail payments and money storage services.
Mobile money has been a fundamental revolution on which the Central Bank hopes to transform Uganda to a cashless economy.
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution gathers pace, innovations are becoming faster, more efficient and more widely accessible than ever before.
Technology has increasingly become connected, and nations, regions and the world at large are seeing a convergence of the digital, physical and biological realms.
Mr Bahati also noted that it was time Uganda adopts emerging technologies such as Blockchain to enable a shift in globalising payment systems.
“Blockchain is about consensus, let us take advantage of it to grow our economies,” he said, noting that Bank of Uganda had already formed a group to look into the aspects of the Blockchain technology in the financial system in Uganda.
Blockchain is a public, digital ledger that anybody can verify. It is distributed globally among a network of computers.

BLOCKCHAIN
Industrial revolution. However, experts have warned against Blockchain technology with some, saying there is no need for a central authority to add new transactions to the ledger.
Blockchain technologies is linked to the fourth industrial revolution. Experts attending the 2019 Blockchain conference said Fourth Industrial Revolution has come with faster and effective innovations.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, said it was time for Africa to move away from export raw materials to being competitive.