NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 25, 2016

As Mobile Money services continue to grow in popularity in the United Republic of Tanzania, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has had the foresight to implement a technological platform to enable the monitoring of mobile money services in the country. The Mobile Money Monitoring (M3) platform provided through the joint efforts of SGS-Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) and Global Voice Group (GVG) and inaugurated in 2015 by the Hon Prof Makame M. Mbarawa, Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, is making this possible. Tanzania is now the first country—in the East African region, and also in the entire world—to implement a Mobile Money monitoring solution.

The M3 solution developed by GVG consists of a data acquisition and processing system for the monitoring of all mobile money transactions in any given country. The TCRA’s M3 system captures all the transaction data from each mobile money application for the purposes of monitoring, verification and analysis. The system also allows the Regulator to monitor the evolution of the mobile money market closely and importantly, the level of compliance with Tanzania’s laws and regulations.

Although Mobile Money services have many advantages: financial inclusion, secure transactions, socio-economic development, additional revenue for the State and job creation, the absence of strict, appropriate regulations poses a serious threat to the economy and the security of the nation. These risks are not limited to fraud, and extend to identity theft, money laundering and the illicit financing of terrorist activities.

By acquiring GVG’s M3 platform, the TCRA is able to offer Tanzania the best of both worlds: financial inclusion, socio-economic development for all and a preserved national security. Prof. Mbarawa, has recently praised the TCRA’s efforts in fulfilling its mandate creatively and innovatively.