Mobile money growth boosts financial inclusion

ABDUEL ELINAZA

THE number of active registered accounts for mobile money services has increased by over 12 per cent to 19.5 million for the year ending April, according to a central bank report.

In solid numbers the registered accounts for mobile money increased to 19.5 million at end of April compared to 17.3 million of last April signifying further financial inclusion penetration in the country.

The increase, according to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), was due to utilisation of interoperability capability in mobile money services.

The service, introduced some four years ago, continued to grow reaching 80.7 million transactions valued at 3.31tri/-, representing a 104.7- per cent increase in volume.

“The interoperability of mobile financial services (MFS) has contributed to overall growth of total mobile money transactions,” BoT’s Monetary Policy Statement issued last month said.

The country has six MFS namely Vodacom with M-Pesa controlling 43 per cent market share, Tigo with Tigo Pesa (36 per cent), Airtel with Airtel Money (17 per cent), Halotel with HaloPesa (3.0 per cent), Zantel with EzyPesa (1.0 per cent), and TTCL (0.04 per cent) as in March this year, according to Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) statistics.

Mobile money analysts have it that among the most important cogwheels of national growth is financial inclusion.

In that regard, mobile banking, triggered by MFS such as TigoPesa, Airtel Money, M-Pesa and HaloPesa led the way in changing the way people transacted their businesses.

For instance, Tigo boasting as a digital lifestyle telecom came up with Tigo Pesa ‘wallets’ in 2014, thus propping up financial inclusion initiative among the previously unbanked population.

Prior to this, most citizens, especially in rural areas, had been excluded from being financially connected due to numerous reasons ranging from lack of sufficient funds to open and maintain a bank account to hard-to-reach bank branch locations.

The financial inclusion rose from barely 10 per cent a few years ago to hit the 65 per cent mark including in the rural areas in recent past—data showed.

Today, mobile devices, super-fast 4G internet connections and MFS such as TigoPesa have become the game changers by easing access to personal finances and e-commerce.

Exposed to the internet, unbanked consumers want access to online shopping, taxi services, insurance, leisure and others which often offer better deals than hitherto bricks-and-mortar services.

The TigoPesa platform has therefore,been at the forefront in facilitating convenient and less expensive transactions for the underserved and un-served communities, according to reports from GSMA, the global mobile industry’s governing body.

In order to drive financial inclusion further and spur national economic growth to become semi-industrialised and a middle-income nation by 2025, TigoPesa has been providing links to bank savings accounts and remittances to low-income households, small businesses, and other unorganised sector entities and users, thus financially boosting the unbanked.

Tigo’s Chief Officer, Mobile Financial Services Hussein Sayeed said they have created more world class services including partnerships with world-class companies like Uber and MasterCard to deliver world-class opportunities for its customers and other stakeholders.

“Our technologies are lifting local economies and encouraging interaction between different communities, business opportunities created by the financial inclusion. “We are well suited to open up doors for e-commerce.

Indeed, we pioneered peer-peer operations in Tanzania,” Sayeed said. Tigopesa Masterpass QR for instance, is betting on convenience delivered to merchants, megastores, coffee shops store retailers, petrol stations through their smartphones.

According to Sayeed, these TigoPesa initiatives and partnerships are successfully fuelling financial inclusion and the roles that banks play in boosting local economy.

Besides promoting rural financial inclusion, Tigo Pesa has been used as virtual wallet to pay for taxis and food delivery—making it a most ideal alternative to carrying around money in bulk.

According to Sayeed, the primary objective of Tigo’s continued investment in development of these exciting products is to provide more value to the customers.

“What this means is that we are bent to deliver outstanding customer experience through offering exclusive value, best class payment solutions and best business solutions for all our customers,” Mr Sayeed said.

Almost all banks have partnered up with MFS in providing financial services that reduce the hassle of going to the mortar-and-brick branches or visiting ATMs.

The partnership has made it possible to make banking transaction wherever a client is using all type of mobile telephones.

CRDB Bank is the first bank to introduce Masterpass code while Selcom, point-of-sale (PoS) terminal operator, has signed a seven-year partnership with MasterCard to roll out multiple payment services across the country.

Mobile money growth bo