Tanzania and many other countries in East Africa have high unbanked population and this has resulted with more people using mobile money.
A new data reveals in 2016 about half of the mobile subscribers had a mobile money account. The telecom companies attempted luring people to use their services amid such situation that banking is like a dream for many.
In 2014 only 40 percent of grown up population (above age 15) in Tanzania had a bank account, reveals a report from the World Bank. The gap was filled by the major telcos with their attractive mobile banking services including Vodafone’s M-Pesa and Tigo Pesa mobile money.
Vodafone even facilitated transfering of money between users of its network in Tanzania and Kenya.
GlobalData report reveals about a quarter of all the mobile revenues in the country was generated from such mobile wallet services in 2016, and the trend will continue further.
The penetration of mobile users last year in the country was 71 percent and so there is still market for new subscribers to use mobile money.
If the trend continues growing at rapid speed, it may be worth questioning that would traditional banking to become obsolete in Tanzania. Possibly yes or possibly no could be the answer, but such services are highly required for Tanzania and other African countries where banking sector is poor and out of reach by the mass.
GSMA director general Mats Granryd said, Mobile money is now achieving mass-market adoption in all corners of Sub-Saharan Africa, enabling millions of people to access financial services for the first time and contributing to economic growth and social development.”
