Hubtel, Ghana’s leading name in bulk SMS messaging, has released new features to enable users collect payment and send money to as many contacts at the same time via SMS.

Patrick Asare-Frimpong, Head of Product at Hubtel, announcing the new update, indicated that due to the popularity of Mobile Money in the country, he and his team carried out a small research and identified one major setback. He thus, noted that this major weakness was what necessitated the introduction of the new feature.

“In Ghana, mobile money and bank accounts are the most common ways to send and receive money. This primarily serves person-to-person payments, but for businesses who need to collect payment from many people at the same time, such as schools, churches, estate managers, and alumni groups, taking payments to a mobile money number often creates some problems. It can be very time-consuming and hard to track who has paid from who hasn’t.”
Patrick Asare-Frimpong

The Head of Product at Hubtel explained how the new update will work, noting that it is simple and will save a lot of time for users.

“We have solved this problem by upgrading our bulk SMS messaging to make it simple for anyone who needs to collect payments from many people to simply alert them via SMS to pay. Each SMS has a unique code and a payment link to pay for any amount. This new update will save our users a lot of time chasing many people to make payments. It is perfect for schools, churches, associations, social media groups, estate managers and businesses in general.”
Patrick Asare-Frimpong

In addition to taking payments from many people via SMS, Patrick Asare-Frimpong asserted that users can also send money to as many contacts with a unique withdrawal code to withdraw the money instantly to any mobile money wallet or bank account. He noted that this feature is most ideal for user such as event planners who work with various vendors and suppliers when managing an event. “When sending money, the event planner can simply assign specific amounts to send to different mobile numbers in a contact list.”

Steps to Follow In Using the New Feature

In a demonstration of the feature, Patrick Asare-Frimpong, guided some users and outlined some basic steps to follow in order to carry out the transaction.

“Using SMS & Money to send, collecting and tracking payments is just as easy as sending a bulk SMS in five simple steps. Firstly, prepare your contact data in Microsoft Excel, then upload your excel file and compose SMS. Personalize your message with unique data of each person (for example, name, contribution type, amount to pay). Set payment features though you can choose to allow or disallow payment in instalment. Send SMS at the lowest rate of 2p (GHS 0.02) per message. Finally, track who has paid and remind those who haven’t.”
Patrick Asare-Frimpong

Meanwhile, Hubtel is the world’s first messaging technology platform to offer this kind of service. According to 2021 data from the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Interbank Payment & Settlement Systems, Hubtel currently processes nearly 8.3% of all successful mobile money payments in Ghana. With the introduction of this feature, the company will be looking forward to a significant increase in its transaction volumes.