Money Sent is aiding borderless money transfers
Have you ever been with an account that has money but are unable to access it?
Put differently, has someone ever called you with an emergency that needs money?
You may even have the money but are unable to send it to this person because of the absence of a transfer system?
A few years ago, a Ugandan was faced with such a problem (had money but was unable to send it to his friend who had an emergency), and got frustrated. But from the frustration, something good was born.
Together with his peers, he developed Money Sent – a mobile app that allows both individuals and companies to connect conveniently in order to send, receive and coordinate efforts involving money.
“Together with my team, we developed an application that allows people to send and receive money. The reason why I created Money Sent was because one time ago, when I wanted to send money to my friend in America and wanted to do MoneyGram online; I signed up successfully at MoneyGram online but unfortunately I couldn’t send money to another person using MoneyGram online because I was a Ugandan. So, I was like Uganda needs something international; a solution that anyone can use to send and receive money regardless of their nationality. I thought of something that would be cheaper and convenient for everyone,” said James Mukasa, the Money Sent Founder and CEO, adding; “It has been more than a year since we started and we have been growing well. The reason why we are called Money Sent is that it is in the past. The moment you click send; money has already been sent. It is instantaneous and secure. We are serving more than 3,000 customers right now. We have 497 agents around the country. We have done more than UGX 1 billion in transactions.”
Money Sent is bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked as no bank account is necessary to send or receive money using this system. The Application is built with online banking level security, meaning that the security of the application, transactions, data, and information of clients is guaranteed.
It relies on principles that govern remittances worldwide and is compliant with AML (Anti-Money Laundering) standards. The Money Sent system is built on strong security standards, and prevents criminals from using the system for their selfish gains and nefarious interests.
This online payment system addresses not only the challenges of the fees charged, delays and tediousness of remittance processes, but also promotes targeted investment. But even with the platform picking up well, Mr. Mukasa nonetheless decries the high charges levied by the telecoms which make business very hard for other stakeholders.
“Most of the unbanked people use MTN and Airtel. When our customers are adding more on Money Sent, the telecoms charge two percent or more yet the client expects to get the money as they have deposited it yet Money Sent has received lower thanks to these charges. This is a very big challenge. There should be togetherness in everything we do because Uganda is too big for only MTN and Airtel,” Mukasa explained.
Money Sent is the fourth participant in this year’s 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative.