MTN Uganda has confirmed that it is testing its Mobile Money transfer service with agents and hundreds of customers nationwide in anticipation of the service's launch.

Mobile Money will only be introduced to the market after a comprehensive test period to guarantee its security, reliability and accessibility to as many Ugandans as possible, said MTN chief commercial officer Erik van Veen in an interview.

Similar pre-launch pilots are also taking place in three of MTN's West African operations, van Veen said.

"MTN Mobile Money will enable all mobile phone users to send cash from one person to another," he explained. "One will not need a bank account. The beauty of it is that one will be able to send money to every phone user; be they MTN customers or not."

Users must register as Mobile Money customers, who will automatically replace their SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards with Mobile Money SIM cards.

"The new SIM card has a new menu and a set of advanced security features to protect the customer, so that when they are transacting, the process is absolutely secure," he explained.

To transfer funds, users will purchase a specific amount of mobile money, up to US$600, from a MTN Mobile Money agent. The customer then sends the funds to another customer's mobile phone via SMS (Short Message Service), and the recipient picks up cash from a nearby Mobile Money agent.

The pilot project for the service began in April and has undergone a rigorous planning and development process, van Veen said, involving extensive customer research, market planning, vendor selection, software development and careful hardware implementation.

A simple and user-friendly interface will be upgraded progressively to include more functions based on the reaction of the market, Van veen noted. However, he could not state an official launch date.

"We are going to make absolutely sure that every little thing is resolved [before the launch]," he said, "because we are going to be dealing with people's money and not just any telecom product."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.