Vodacom, Tigo in Tanzania mobile money partnership

DAR ES SALAAM – MILLIONS of M-Pesa and Tigo Pesa customers in Tanzania will soon be able to send and receive money directly into each other’s e-wallets.

This follows the signing of a mobile money interoperability agreement
between Tigo and Vodacom, the mobile network operators.

Rene Meza, Vodacom Tanzania’s Managing Director said this was a great evolution of the mobile money service in Tanzania.

“Our customers will soon be able to directly access the money received through Tigo Pesa and use it for whatever purposes they may have without necessarily having to cash it out,” said Meza.

Meza added the agreement signed between the country’s two largest mobile  operators’ networks would allow 7 million M-Pesa users to directly send
and receive money to an additional 4 million Tigo Pesa users across the country at no additional cost or inconvenience to them by the end of the year.

The partnership is seen as another tangible step towards the enhancement of financial inclusion in Tanzania as well as the expansion of the mobile money ecosystem in Tanzania.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) formulated the mobile-wallet-to wallet standards with support from Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), which have been the basis of the interoperability discussions between mobile network operators in Tanzania.

– CAJ News