At Owino Market in Kampala, a secondhand clothes trader sends her supplier in Jinja UGX 100,000 for a fresh bale of stock. She dials *165#, confirms the transfer, and pays a UGX 1,000 fee. An hour later she needs cash for the day’s running costs and withdraws UGX 50,000 from an agent two stalls down. That withdrawal costs UGX 1,500 in MTN’s own fee, plus another UGX 250 that goes straight to government as Uganda’s mobile money withdrawal tax, a charge that never touched her earlier transfer at all.

MTN MoMo is not a side service in Uganda. MTN’s active mobile money subscribers grew 6.5% to 14.7 million in the year to December 2025, with transaction volumes up 16.8% to 5 billion and transaction value up 23% to UGX 195.5 trillion, on an estimated 52% share of the market. With that much money moving through phones, knowing exactly what MTN charges you, and what the government adds on top, is the difference between pricing correctly and quietly losing money every week. Before sending or withdrawing, it is worth checking the free Mobile Money Fees Comparison tool at MetricSuite.tools, which lines up MTN MoMo against other providers for the exact amount you are moving.

This guide covers every MTN MoMo fee in Uganda for 2026: sending, agent and ATM withdrawal, bill payments, and the real status of the mobile money withdrawal tax, verified directly against MTN Uganda’s own published tariff.

How MTN MoMo Fees Actually Work in Uganda

MTN Uganda prices transactions in thirteen amount bands running from UGX 500 up to UGX 5,000,000, and the fee changes at every band boundary. Receiving money into your wallet is always free. So is depositing cash, buying airtime or data bundles for yourself or someone else, changing your PIN, checking your balance, and accessing your account while roaming.

Two separate things stack on top of a withdrawal: MTN’s own fee, and a government tax. They are easy to conflate, so this guide keeps them apart at every step.

MTN MoMo Send Money Charges Uganda 2026

Sending to another MTN or a different network wallet is priced in the same thirteen bands. A few reference points, drawn directly from MTN Uganda’s published tariff:

• UGX 500 to 5,000: a flat UGX 100
• UGX 5,001 to 60,000: a flat UGX 500
• UGX 60,001 to 250,000: a flat UGX 1,000
• UGX 500,001 to 1,000,000: a flat UGX 1,500
• Above UGX 1,000,000: UGX 2,000

Sending to a bank account is a separate, higher schedule and is not available at all below UGX 2,500. From there it starts at UGX 1,500 and rises with the amount, reaching UGX 11,300 in the highest bands. Neither type of send carries the government withdrawal tax. That only applies once cash actually leaves the mobile money system.

MTN MoMo Cash-Out (Withdrawal) Charges 2026

Withdrawing cash, whether at an agent or an ATM, is the more expensive side of the wallet, and it is where the government’s mobile money tax applies. A few reference points from MTN’s published tariff, agent fee plus the tax band:

• UGX 5,001 to 15,000: UGX 700 agent fee, plus a tax of roughly UGX 25 to 75
• UGX 60,001 to 125,000: UGX 1,925 agent fee, plus a tax of roughly UGX 300 to 625
• UGX 500,001 to 1,000,000: UGX 12,500 agent fee, plus a tax of roughly UGX 2,500 to 5,000
• UGX 2,000,001 to 4,000,000: UGX 18,000 agent fee, plus a tax of roughly UGX 10,000 to 20,000

So withdrawing exactly UGX 1,000,000 costs UGX 12,500 in MTN’s own fee plus UGX 5,000 in government tax, UGX 17,500 in total. ATM withdrawal fees run close to the agent rate in most bands, slightly higher in some, and are not offered at all above UGX 1,000,000. Agents are not permitted to charge anything beyond what MTN deducts from your wallet. If one asks for extra cash before releasing your withdrawal, that is not an official charge.

Is Uganda’s Mobile Money Tax Changing in 2026?

This is the one worth checking before you assume anything has moved. The tax on mobile money withdrawals in Uganda is 0.5% of the amount withdrawn, and it applies only to cash withdrawals, not to sends, bill payments, or bank transfers in either direction. It was introduced in 2018 at 1%, alongside the broader excise duty reforms of that year, and was cut to 0.5% within months after the original rate triggered a sharp, well documented drop in mobile money usage.

Earlier in 2026, the Ministry of Finance floated a genuine change for the 2026/27 budget: halving the withdrawal tax to 0.25% and spreading it across the wider financial sector, so that both banks and mobile money providers would each carry 0.25%, with the reform also covering bank-to-wallet transfers. Telecom operators, including MTN, lobbied Parliament’s Finance Committee directly for the cut in mid-April 2026. By late April, the Ministry confirmed the proposal would not be part of the 2026/27 revenue measures after all. Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi said the idea was shelved for now, though the government may revisit it later.

The result is that the 0.5% withdrawal tax you see in MTN’s own tariff table above is still the current rate for 2026, unchanged, and still limited to withdrawals. If you come across anything claiming a rate cut has already taken effect, treat it as premature. It has not.

MTN MoMo Free Services and Bill Payments

Not everything on MTN MoMo carries a fee. Depositing cash onto your wallet, buying airtime or data, sending voice and messaging bundles to another number, checking your balance, changing your PIN, and using your account while roaming are all free on every transaction size.

Bill payments are priced separately from sends and withdrawals, and the fee depends on which biller you are paying. Paying school fees, Azam TV, ReadyPay, or SolarNow starts as low as UGX 110 in the lowest band and rises with the amount. Paying UMEME, National Water and Sewerage Corporation, DStv, StarTimes, or NSSF starts at UGX 190 in the lowest band and climbs faster than the first group as the amount increases. Either way, these payments do not attract the 0.5% withdrawal tax, since no cash is leaving the system.

MTN MoMo Account Limits in 2026

MTN Uganda sets both a transaction floor and a wallet ceiling:

• Minimum transaction amount: UGX 500
• Maximum single transaction: UGX 5,000,000
• Minimum account balance: UGX 0
• Maximum account balance: UGX 20,000,000

These limits apply per MTN’s published tariff and are separate from any additional KYC-based restrictions the app may prompt you to resolve at registration.

Keeping Your MTN MoMo Costs Down

• Pay merchants and bills directly through MoMo Pay or the biller code rather than withdrawing cash first, since only withdrawals carry the 0.5% government tax.
• Consolidate withdrawals into fewer, larger amounts where you can, since the fee bands are wide and splitting one withdrawal into several smaller ones usually costs more in total.
• Use bank transfer for supplier payments above roughly UGX 60,000, since the bank-transfer schedule can work out cheaper than withdrawing cash and paying in person, depending on the amount.
• If you import goods and pay suppliers or clearing agents through MoMo, check landed cost first with the free Uganda Import Duty Calculator at MetricSuite.tools, so the transfer fee is not the only number you are budgeting for.
• If you sell on WhatsApp or Instagram, track what MoMo fees actually take out of each sale with the free Social Commerce Profit Tracker at MetricSuite.tools, rather than estimating.

All figures in this guide are drawn directly from MTN Uganda’s published Mobile Money Tariffs page and cross-checked against Ugandan business reporting on the 2026/27 budget proposals. Rates verified against MTN Uganda’s official tariff, last checked July 2026.

Conclusion

Before your next transfer or withdrawal, do not estimate the cost from memory, and do not assume the mobile money tax has changed just because a cut was proposed. Run the actual number using the free Mobile Money Fees Comparison tool at MetricSuite.tools, and check MTN’s own tariff page for the current band if you are moving an unusually large amount.

Key Takeaways

• Sending money on MTN MoMo runs from a flat UGX 100 in the lowest bands up to UGX 2,000 above UGX 1,000,000. Sending to a bank account is a separate, higher schedule.
• Withdrawing cash is the more expensive side of the wallet, MTN’s own fee plus a government tax, both increasing by band. Withdrawing UGX 1,000,000 costs UGX 17,500 in total.
• The 0.5% government tax applies only to cash withdrawals. It does not touch sends, bill payments, or bank transfers in either direction.
• A 2026 proposal to cut the withdrawal tax to 0.25% and spread it across banks and mobile money providers was shelved for the 2026/27 budget. The rate stays at 0.5%.
• Deposits, airtime, bundles, balance checks, PIN changes, and roaming access on MTN MoMo are all free.

REFERENCES

1. MTN Uganda. “Mobile Money Tariffs.” https://www.mtn.co.ug/tariffs/mobile-money-tariffs/
2. Daily Monitor. “Gov’t refuses to reduce tax on mobile money.” https://www.independent.co.ug/govt-refuses-to-reduce-tax-on-mobile-money/
3. The Observer. “Gov’t rejects proposal to cut mobile money withdrawal tax.” https://observer.ug/business/govt-rejects-proposal-to-cut-mobile-money-withdrawal-tax/
4. Parliament of Uganda. “Telecoms push for cuts in mobile money tax.” https://www.parliament.go.ug/news/4396/telecoms-push-cuts-mobile-money-tax
5. Daily Monitor. “Mobile money taxes reverse digital financial inclusion.” https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/business/prosper/mobile-money-taxes-reverse-digital-financial-inclusion-5392494