First, let’s look at why you should start a mobile money side hustle.

All the other reasons for starting a side hustle may apply here. You can read about them here. But I want to encourage those with retail, wholesale, and majorly roadside businesses to try this out. It’s easy to add it to your business at a small fee of Ugx 20000. Then share operating capital with your business and earn a monthly commission.

Requirements

Just like any other mobile money business, the requirements that you’ll need to start include capital or operating funds in form of cash, the means of transacting, and an accessible place where customers can easily see your posts and come to you.

The main concern is the means of transacting of which in this case it shall be your smartphone with an internet connection.

Read also; How to improve your mobile money commission.

How it works.

You shall register with an online transaction company that can do the transactions on your behalf and pays your commission with a small fee of over 4%+ of the commission given by the mother companies taken as their operation fee. The fee the companies charge differs. After you register with the company, you’ll transact with them through their app. This is all that you do on your side. The companies later deal with the mother companies.

Different companies that work in this business.

These are the different companies that do transactions on your behalf with the mother companies.

General requirements that most of these companies require.

• A valid national Identity Card.
• Registraction fees. most of these companies charge very little registration fess. Some of these have been highlighted below.
• Photographs of the person registering.
• Operation area and site photographs.

Chap chap merchant.

This is one of the major companies. You can download the app on the Google play store and create an account to start transacting. A small registration fee of Ugx 20000 is charged and other additional requirements such as national ID, photographs, operating site disclosure, and more in the registration process. You can read more about chap chap.

Quick teller.

Just like the above, you can download the app from the play store and create an account to start transacting. A small registration fee of Ugx 20000 is also charged. you can read more about quick teller.

Pebbu

Pebbu also does just what the others do. The only difference is that pebbu registration fees are a little higher. They charge Ugx 100000. You can read more about pebbu.

There are many more companies doing this and the choice of the company to use is yours. All the companies provide the service. Though I recommend you register with two companies as sometimes, the systems of one of the companies may have issues and you consider using the other not to lose customers.

The first two are the best options as they charge less registration fees and the services are good.

Read also: Rules for successful mobile money business.

Why start a mobile money business with your smartphone?

I prefer transacting with my smartphone through these mediator companies simply because;

• It’s all in one.

The companies transact for most of the mother companies such as Airtel, Mtn, Africell, and more which is easier compared to having all those company agent sim cards.

• It’s cheaper in the short run. 

All you need is a smartphone connected to the internet and registration fees. This cheaper compared to buying agent sim cards of all networks

• It offers more services.

There are many more services that these companies offer compared to parent agent line companies such as buying airtime of many networks and paying most bills.

• It’s easier to transact and their customer/ agent help services are way better than those of parent companies
• It’s easier to track your earnings commission wise as all systems show your commission compared to the sim card system which doesn’t. If you want to always track your earnings, this is a good one.
• It requires very small registration fees and the registration process is fast. Very small registration fees are charged as shown above compared to the registration fees charged by mother companies to get agent sim cards. Additionally, The duration it takes to register is short and sometimes instant.

Nevertheless, there are shortcomings too.

• It’s expensive in the long run.

You always incur data charges and a 4%+ charge on commission.

• Different company systems keep getting issues. You can solve this by opening two accounts for different companies.

Conclusion.

Operating a mobile money business with a smartphone is a wise idea if you wish to do the hustle for a short time and quit or have little startup capital.

Note; All fees discussed in this post are subject to change.

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