Money, money, money

As I was very happy to going for Safari with Nelson, I’ve right away booked another one for July, just before I’ll leave Uganda. After discussing where to go this time, Nelson asked me to pay a certain amount in advance to make a few reservations. I didn’t really feel comfortable paying things more than two months in advance around here, but as Nelson told me, one cannot be sure that a reservation is really made before one pays in advance, no matter how expensive a place one books.

Apart from the fact that people simply might not show up when they are supposed to, two of the main reasons for this are most probably the omnipresent problem of lacking liquidity and the people going for the quick money which are certainly interdependent. Most people here are simply not able to buy things from their reserves and take every opportunity to make money. Same for companies. In practice, this means i.e. that even though one has made a reservation in a lodge, restaurant, hotel or whatever, one cannot be sure to really get the room when standing in front of the counter even if one has made the reservation the same day or confirmed the reservation after latter. Should someone unexpectedly check-in at a lodge without prior reservation but paying cash in advance, the staff would simply cancel the existing reservation… Bye, bye, Safari tent…

So, back to Nelsons deposit… As I had just spent a fortune for the last Safari, I had simply not enough money with me to pay a deposit. Easy, just go to the ATM and withdraw money, you might think, but this is Africa, it’s not that easy…

The officially recommended way to get money as recommended from the Swiss banks and travel agencies etc. is to simply bring US$ to Uganda as one is not allowed to import local currency. This may lead to multiple money loss due to exchange like i.e. CHF->US$, US$->UGS, UGS->US$, US$->CHF. The banks in Uganda provide bad exchange rates btw. and also charge pretty high fees for almost no work at all. Fortunately most lodges accept US$, so one does not have to exchange all money. But on the other hand, in places like the Community Camp in Bwindi, where I did the Gorilla trekking, they – in case one doesn’t have any US$ and thus has to pay in UGS - they would simply calculate the equivalent of the indicated price (which is US$) in Ugandan Shillings applying an exchange rate of 2600 whereas one gets an exchange rate of 2350 to 2430 at the bank, depending on the amount of money that needs to be converted and the negotiation skills. So that's also how one can easily lose money... except for the banks…

Plan B: One can use a money transfer service like Western Union. After filling up many forms in Switzerland, one can send a maximum amount of the equivalent of 500 CHF in local currency to some person in Uganda for a fee of 50 CHF, which is expensive but still less expensive than exchanging money at a Ugandan bank. The receiver would then have to go to a bank who is offering that Western Union service, where he would also have to fill in a form to get the money. After the first two successful transactions, one is allowed to apply for a membership whereas one will be allowed to sending amounts exceeding the initial 500 CHF. The application process will take up to 3 weeks. Nice, but pretty useless if one uses money quickly. But I have to admit, that – once a transaction is accepted, the money would instantly be available at any destination which is pretty cool.

Plan C: Credit card… There’s ATM’s in the cities but most are only to be used with local debit cards or most likely Visa card. After calling some friend, Nelson found out that some banks would also accept credit cards issued by some other big company from which I have a credit card. So Nelson offered to tell me when he would drive to one of the bigger cities and give me a ride so I could withdraw the required money.

Plan D: opening a bank account in Uganda… (or better two, one for US$ and one for UGS), which is no option to me.

Ok, I decided to go for mixed plan B and C. The money transfer was a bit tricky and only worked after a few attempts and corrections. As promised, Nelson called me last Saturday to tell me he planned to going to Gulu the following Monday. So I went with him. After a 2 hour drive on very bad roads with too many potholes to count we arrived in Gulu. Nelson dropped me at one of the banks. I asked the teller if it was possible to withdraw money using my credit card. He then asked me if I had an account at their bank which I had to answer in the negative, so he shook his head and asked me to use the ATM whereas the limit would be 200’000 Shillings (which is approximately 70 CHF). Nice, I’m pretty sure that the fees for one withdrawal will be high… What to do? - I still tried it out and found out that I was able to withdraw 700’000, which is almost 250 CHF. That’s still not much but at least somewhat. So I tried to withdraw again which worked. After that Nelson drove me to another bank. Same procedure, same result. So I went to the next ATM again and tried one time, two times and that was it. My card was rejected after that. I’ve reached the daily limit and now had 2’800’000 Ugandan Shillings which is quite an amount of bills… What to do? I still had some money left so I could pay the deposit to Nelson but it proved again arduous to get money. Then I got a message that the Western Union money transfer was accepted and received a secret code that I’d have to tell to get the money. Actually it was Nelson who had to do this as the money was sent to him. It was already 4 p.m. which means that the banks are about to close. We still drove to a bank – again, just before the closed the door. Then we queued for a while and then asked some staff if the Western Union money transfer service is available at this bank, but it wasn’t. Pfff… by now all the banks would be closed. Fortunately Nelson has a friend who is the managing director of a bank in Gulu, so he called him and asked to let him in to withdraw this money which he did. So we drove to the bank where the armed security staff was blocking the entrance, called again, and waited a few seconds for the gate to swing open for us. It’s nice to know Nelson here in Uganda! At the counter we needed to fill in forms. As Nelson was the receiver he had to fill in most of the information. Then the teller asked for a copy of this passport. Noooo, that can’t be! But it could… Thus Nelson ran out of the bank, trying to find some copyshop nearby. In the meantime I also filled in a section of the form. As it took a while before Nelson returned, the teller asked me to hand over the form so she could proceed. She checked it and then asked me, what the password was, which I had written in the form… So I told her… Then she complained about the way I wrote the uppercase letter “M” and asked me to write it properly. I just smiled and told her that this was a Swiss M but she wouldn’t react on that. I returned the form when Nelson entered the bank again with the required copy. Finally we received the money.

Phew, that was a big fuzz for that amount of mnoney…