Report names country’s lead financial service firm

From left: Dipen Shah, YPO Tanzania Chapter chairman, Charles Davis YPO global president, Mike Davis, YPO Tanzania outgoing chairman, and Tanzania Chapter founder Shafin Jamal pose for introduction at a meeting in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday. PHOTO|THE CITIZEN CORRESPONDENT   

By Ludger Kasumuni  (email the author)

In Summary

• Bank branches exist only in seven per cent of wards, which contains 12 per cent of population. Bank presence increases to 17 per cent of wards and 25 per cent of population if stand alone ATMs and micro finance institution branches are included as well.

Dar es Salaam. Vodacom’s M-Pesa is the most extensive financial services provider in Tanzania outperforming all other entities in terms of coverage -- it covers 40 per cent of the country’s population.

According to the latest findings by Financial Sector Deepening Trust of Tanzania, the country has 17,000 M-Pesa agents accounting for 87 per cent of cash outlets commonly used for financial services or money transfers.

Micro finance branches are second most widely deployed cash outlets with almost 1,100 points across the country, while commercial banks have 500 branches and an additional 369 stand alone ATMs, according to FSDT findings.

The bottom at the ranking in provision of financial services is traditional money transfers that occur through over 400 bus stands and 200 post offices, shows FSDT report.

“M-Pesa agents are present in 29 per cent of all wards, accounting for 40 per cent of the population and occupying 19 per cent of landmass. They are far and away the most present,” the report reads in part.

“Bank branches exist only in seven per cent of wards, which contains 12 per cent of population. Bank presence increases to 17 per cent of wards and 25 per cent of population if stand alone ATMs and micro finance institution branches are included as well,” report further reads.

The survey shows post offices have similar presence to bank branches, covering seven per cent of wards, 11 per cent of population, while inter-regional bus stands adds up money transfer outlets by only two per cent.

UDSM’s Prof Humphrey Moshi said the country still faces a number of challenges in financial services delivery, among others include oligopolist tendency of financial institutions, wide differences between deposit rate and lending rate.