Dar es Salaam. Subscribers with Vodacom’s M-Pesa will now be able to easily send and receive money to eight new countries with
the Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc), thanks to the expansion of the mobile money platform’s International Money Transfer (IMT) portfolio.New countries to be covered in the expansion are: South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This was announced on Thursday October 27, during an event to launch a Vodacom M-Pesa campaign dubbed ‘Dunia Kijiji, Afrika ni M-Pesa’ which aims at promoting M-Pesa as the currency of transactions for Africa with all African countries able to send money to Vodacom M-Pesa.
Gracing the event in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Dr Stargomena Tax, exuded her delight on the fact that mobile money has become Africa’s leading digital payment platform connecting millions across the continent and facilitating international trade and remittances.
Through its IMT portfolio, Vodacom M-Pesa facilitates international remittances by connecting over 200 countries worldwide allowing Tanzanians to transact across borders.
“The entrant of mobile money in international remittance has not only improved ease of access but also reduced the cost of transfers bringing us closer to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 10). We applaud this growth in this space and commend Vodacom M-Pesa for paving the way,” said Dr Tax.
She applauded the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) for effectively regulating mobile money by working with telecom operators to ensure that international payments and remittances are done safely and securely. Sending to Sadc countries, she said, further testifies the enabling environment that the BoT was putting on top of enabling Tanzanians to receive remittances from across the World directly into their mobile wallets.
“This is financially connecting the diaspora to their families back home while international and inter-regional trade is made even easier with mobile money,” she said.
Speaking during the event, the M-Pesa director Epimack Mbeteni said the platform has leveraged on partnerships and innovation to grow its international money transfer portfolio.
It started in 2014 by connecting with Kenya, in 2019, it had expanded allowing M-Pesa customers to send money across East Africa and receive money from over 200 countries thus making a significant contribution on incoming money into the ecosystem and growth of M-Pesa. In September 2021, telecom added a new feature which enables Tanzanian customers to send remittances from M-Pesa to all bank accounts in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.
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