Comedian Ann Kansime in a UTL TV advert. Subscribers can now borrow airtime and pay back later in the ‘Topowa’ service.
Uganda Telecom has launched its airtime credit service dubbed “Topowa” under which its subscribers will now be able to borrow airtime to make calls, send messages across all networks, enjoy data services and pay back later.
To access the new service, a subscriber is required to dial *146# and select the amount they would like to borrow. This is a free service to all Uganda Telecom subscribers. However, the customer needs to have been on the network for at least ninety days for the service to be activated.
Commenting on Topowa, Mr. Shailendra; Chief Commercial Officer at Uganda Telecom said, “At Uganda Telecom, we constantly interact with our customers not only through our call center team but also online and this has been the most requested for service by our customers. We are happy to introduce this new exciting service because we know that there is a point in time when they can’t access airtime and we trust our customers enough to provide them a credit facility.”
“We chose the name Topowa to simply mean, “You don’t have to give up”. We know that there are times, especially emergencies during which access to airtime may be limited so this is one way of easing our customers’ lives and making our services more accessible,” Mr. Shailendra added.