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

Friday, February 17, 2017

The amount of cash transacted across networks of mobile phone platforms reached Sh988.9 billion during the second half of last year as telecom firms become an increasingly important payment avenue, giving commercial banks a run for their money.

During a similar period in 2015, mobile phones registered only Sh178.1 billion in cross network money transactions.

In 2014, Tigo, Airtel and Zantel announced a pioneering interoperability agreement but in February last year, Vodacom joined them to boost financial inclusion and ostensibly, sent commercial banks back to their drawing board and strategised on how to remain relevant in the wake of new banking competitors that masquerade as telecommunication firms.

The money was sent–across networks–by some 17.02 million active users of mobile phone financial services, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) says in its latest Monetary Statement Policy (MPS).