A mobile money transfer agent in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. PHOTO FILE | NATION
As the number of people using mobile money grows, commercial
banks in Tanzania are partnering with telecom companies to reach the
unbanked as well as allowing mobile money subscribers with bank accounts
to transfer cash between the two services.
“The
integration gives room for more people to use either mobile money, bank
accounts or both, and makes it easier for a bank to reach a large
market, particularly rural areas which are financially underserved,”
said Ineke Bussemaker, chief executive officer of NMB Bank.
Telecoms
with their networks allow banks to exploit their existing client base,
and in turn, telecoms are able to offer banking products to their
existing customers.
“It is not competition… as banks we
are looking for ways to co-operate and work with telecom companies to
extend financial services to a larger population,” said Junaita Mramba,
head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered Plc.
Financial inclusion
A
Financial Inclusion Tracker survey shows that 85 per cent of adults
with mobile money accounts use mobile money services exclusively while
the remaining 15 per cent transact through either a bank account, or a
non-bank financial institution, commonly known as Vicoba, or both.
“Nearly
all adults who used banks also used mobile money services. Mobile money
increasingly caters to the needs of most customers, including demand
for some advanced services,” says the report.
According to the survey, access to bank accounts in Tanzania remained at eight per cent year-on-year.
“The
use of banks remained stable on year-on-year data, but is low compared
with mobile money. Most bank and non-bank financial institutions (NBFI)
users also use mobile money. Moreover, many people use mobile money
accounts more actively than banks and NBFIs,” said Bank of Tanzania.
On
financial inclusion, bank accounts play an important role in starting
and expanding businesses, making transactions more efficient, secure and
transparent and for managing savings.
Common uses for
mobile money among Tanzanians are receiving and sending money and buying
airtime. Just under half of users mentioned that they had also used
mobile money to save their earnings.
The Bank of
Tanzania aims to ensure that 80 per cent of Tanzanian adults use a
financial access platform by the end of this year, and 70 per cent of
the population get to live within five kilometers of a financial access
point.
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