How PivotPay Agent App is driving Uganda’s digital payments revolution

It is no secret that Uganda has a growing generation of young tech savvy workers who have prioritised digital payments over cash in hand in their daily lives.

Today, more than ever, people in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) are living increasingly digital lives thanks to mobile money—paying bills, school fees and a variety of online and offline merchants through mobile money accounts.?

Globally, the basis of digital payments is trust. Building on trust, many Ugandan consumers according to a Fitspa survey do not exhibit strong trust in e-commerce, specifically with the digital payment options through debit/credit card and/or money for products that they have not yet received and verified.

A large portion of traders and consumers are still cash-driven. Working to build trust in paying using digital wallets is the next horizon for fintechs.

Driven by mobile money, there is an increased number of mobile and digital wallet providers that are keen on tapping into the payments' subsector.

This is all combined to serve utilities, bank-to-consumer, e-commerce, and end-user retail payments.

Mobile money dominates this space because it does not require a smartphone, but rather relies on the simplicity of USSD which is an entry point for many Ugandans to telecom and financial services.

After mobile money, merchant or instore payments like MTN MoMo pay, Airtel Money pay and card payments have grown steadily over the years.

However, Covid-19 accelerated the trend for instore payments using Apps since they allow purchases and money transfers without the physical use of cash, checks or credit/debit cards.?

With the future of African banking becoming mobile, Pivot Payments intends to drive mobile wallet banking and electronic payment transactions on the back of the growing mobile money revolution.

Pivot Payments runs the Pivot Pay App for our customers which is part of this cashless revolution offering mobile wallet savings, direct digital money transfer in Uganda and across borders especially with a footprint in the Middle East, paying bills, and Business to Business and Business to Customer merchant payments.?

This week we rolled our second App, the PivotPay Agent App that will seamlessly support the customer deposits and withdrawals through our selected agents in different locations across the country.

Frank Muyanja, our Acquisitions and Engagement Manager said the target is to roll out 5000 agents across the country this year.

Just like MTN and Airtel mobile money agents; Pivot Pay Agents will use the Agent App to facilitate withdrawals and deposits directly from and on the customer mobile wallets.?

The Agent App also has an option to facilitate payments of utility bills for companies such as; Umeme, National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Dstv, GoTV, Boda Boda Banja, Azam Tv, and Wenreco.