Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Tanzanian government will continue to collaborate with the private sector, financial institutions and other stakeholders to ensure that digital payment systems continue to improve and be beneficial to citizens and visitors visiting the country, the Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Hamad Hassan Chande said today ,February 14, 2026.
Chande made this known in Arusha during the launch of the Azampesa service in collaboration with Visa for digital payments for international tourists and called on other organizations to be creative in designing better and modern ways in providing services to tourists visiting the country in order to provide employment opportunities for tourists and the growth of the national economy.
“This service will bring great benefits, including enhancing the experience of tourists visiting Tanzania by providing them with easy, secure and modern payment services, empowering local businesses, stimulating the growth of the digital economy, increasing transparency and efficiency in financial transactions, while strengthening national revenue collection” He explained.
Chande added that the Azampesa service has come at an opportune time when the tourism sector has been rapidly improving.
Between 2021 and 2025, the number of domestic tourists has increased from 788,933 in 2021 to 3.6 million in 2025, while international tourists increased from 922,692 to 2.2 million in the same period as a result of the Royal Tour and Amizing Tanzania films.
In another step, Chande has directed service providers, despite using a foreign language in the registration system, to also use the Kiswahili language to honour and appreciate our nationality.
In addition, he has urged them to educate the community on the importance of the service and strengthen the protection and security of systems in parallel with planning well to serve visitors during the 2027 AFCON Championship, a period when we expect to have many visitors in the country.
For his part, AzamPesa Chief Executive Officer, Firas Ahmad said digital payments aim to enable tourists to make transactions easily across Tanzania without the need for cash, ATMs or the use of physical cards, where the service is a payment solution for tourists in Tanzania.
The Vice President and General Manager of Visa East Africa, Chad Pollock, explained that through the partnership with AzamPesa, Visa will enable Visa cardholders to make payments like locals via their mobile phones
