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The Money Business
Sending money to Uganda from the US has proved to be quite a challenge - till now.
We first tried Western Union, but gave it up in a hurry. Sending $100 currently costs $20 on top of an unfavourable exchange rate.
Bank transfers, are just about impossible.
So, we came up with a work around. Two members, one in the US and one in Uganda opened a joint bank account in the US. The process was rather simple and an ATM card was mailed out to the member in Uganda.
Now, transferring money is a breeze. Once the money is deposited in to the account in the US, it is available within minutes in Uganda at an ATM.
Though there is a small fee for using the ATM (we are not sure exactly how much this is yet, but think is around $2), the exchange rate is quite reasonable. And it comes with the excellent customer service of the bank in the US - they were happy to call a number in Uganda to resolve an issue.
But, this is a work around. The question remains. Why is it so expensive to send money? Especially given that remittances are incredibly important in many parts of the world.
"In Africa, the amount of money remitted by diaspora workers - $17 billion per year - is larger than the amount of foreign direct investment in Africa, and rivals official development assistance grants or loans ($25 billion per year)."
The quote is taken from an interesting post on this topic by Ethan Zuckerman.
We first tried Western Union, but gave it up in a hurry. Sending $100 currently costs $20 on top of an unfavourable exchange rate.
Bank transfers, are just about impossible.
So, we came up with a work around. Two members, one in the US and one in Uganda opened a joint bank account in the US. The process was rather simple and an ATM card was mailed out to the member in Uganda.
Now, transferring money is a breeze. Once the money is deposited in to the account in the US, it is available within minutes in Uganda at an ATM.
Though there is a small fee for using the ATM (we are not sure exactly how much this is yet, but think is around $2), the exchange rate is quite reasonable. And it comes with the excellent customer service of the bank in the US - they were happy to call a number in Uganda to resolve an issue.
But, this is a work around. The question remains. Why is it so expensive to send money? Especially given that remittances are incredibly important in many parts of the world.
"In Africa, the amount of money remitted by diaspora workers - $17 billion per year - is larger than the amount of foreign direct investment in Africa, and rivals official development assistance grants or loans ($25 billion per year)."
The quote is taken from an interesting post on this topic by Ethan Zuckerman.
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