Vodacom M-Pawa loans reach 4.2bn/- in May

TANGA Cement Managing Director, Reinhardt Swart (left) and Vodacom Tanzania’s Chief Officer – Enterprise Business Unit, Gregory Verbond, exchange documents after signing an agreement under which purchases of Simba Cement can be made through Vodacom’s M-Pesa mobile money transfer service at no extra cost at a brief occasion held in Tanga. Standing from second left are Tanga Cement Plant Manager, Ben Lema, Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Pieter de Jager and Vodacom Head of M-Pesa Sales, Paritosh Babla. (Photo by Staff Photographer)

Vodacom Tanzania Chief Officer M-Commerce Mr Sitoyo Lopokoiyit said M-Pawa was increasingly being heralded as the tool for bringing financial services to the large unbanked population in Tanzania.

“In just two years since its launch, M-Pawa subscribers have skyrocketed to 4.8 million. Todate, 39bn/- have been issued to subscribers through M-Power and most of them are entrepreneurs mostly women and youth to increase income,” he said.

Prior to introduction of various mobile financial solutions, the unbanked population relied on cash or informal financial services which were typically unsafe, inconvenient and denied them the opportunity to access loans.

The high penetration of mobile phones in Tanzania provided the basis for extending access to financial services such as payments, transfers, insurance, savings, and credit.

Thus Vodacom Tanzania in partnership with CBA bank introduced M-Pawa -- the first- ever mobile savings and loan service in Tanzania – a service that has proven to be a saviour to millions of its subscribers.

The introduction of Vodacom’s M-Pawa was made possible in partnership with the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), following studies showing that there are millions of Tanzanians especially in rural areas who do not have bank accounts mostly due to the absence of banking institutions or lack of the requisite monies to open up a bank account.