The four countries of the East African bloc are currently conducting a study seeking to harmonize money transfer fees across the region.
This is being done by the Central Banks of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan after a joint directive from the countries' heads of state.
They will study money flows in mobile platforms and harmonization of the rates.
Through the One Network Area Agreement, ICT Ministers of the four countries with their Finance counterparts will review the report together once it is complete.
ICT Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i said that mobile network operators will agree on an inter-operator rate for money transfer.
The study aims at dissecting technologies applied in mobile money in the respective countries and how secure it would be.
It is expected that the harmonization of mobile money transfer rates will be done by the close of 2015.
This will make international remittances from M-Pesa, Airtel Money and Orange Money to MTN mobile money customers in Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan much easier.
“We want you to be able to move money from your M-Pesa account here to a relative in Kigali and vice versa or from Airtel Uganda to Safaricom in Nairobi,” Dr Matiang’i said.
