Mobile money services in Tanzania have been experiencing tremendous growth. Tanzania is among the rapidly growing economies in the continent and mobile money services are key to this growth. Being one of the major players in the industry, Vodacom Tanzania reported that M-Pesa has surpassed the 4.4 million mark. This reflects 48 percent of the mobile provider’s customers drawn from all over the country. M-Pesa launched four years ago in Tanzania. Initially the uptake was slow but the service is currently used widely across the nation.
Close to 35 billion Tanzanian Shillings passes through M-Pesa systems daily, says CEO Rene Meza. Tanzanians transact business over the mobile service since it is reputed to be safe, reliable and it is available all over the country. Effort has been made to steadily grow access to the M-pesa. Already Vodacom has an agent network that includes over 35,000 outlets.
Mobile money services are seen as a key ingredient to furthering economic growth in Tanzania and the Vodacom report is a positive sign that users are employing their mobile phone devices for that purpose. Tanzania has reported massive economic growth in recent years, making it one of the most vibrant economies in Africa.
Vodacom is eyeing D.R. Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho for plans to roll out similar services in the countries.