AfricaPress-Tanzania: MOBILE money services in Tanzania have evolved beyond simple money transfer to allow people save, insure and borrow money.
As the largest mobile money market in Africa, Tanzania is one of the pioneers in the continent to introduce interoperability between rival mobile money services.
The market has been driven by the ubiquity of mobile phones among people from all socio-economic backgrounds with extensive coverage of mobile networks and penetration of internet.
Since the introduction of mobile money in Tanzania in 2008 by Vodacom Tanzania, millions have enjoyed the convenience that comes with mobile money, the security and speed that it offers them.
Digital payments have changed the way we do business and conduct everyday tasks. The use of physical money is much less of a feature of everyday life than it once was.
More than decade later mobile money is still shaping our purchase behaviors and taking our economy digital due to innovation.
Having become accustomed to the speed of digital services, customers are more demanding when it comes to digital payments.
People want their financial transactions to occur conveniently, quickly, and in step with technological innovation.
This has led banks and financial tech companies alike to deploy innovative payment solutions, which rely on mobile devices as a key piece of the offering.
This demand coupled with competition has kept digital payment service providers on their toes as they battle to bring innovative solution to customer need and challenges.
One such company, Vodacom Tanzania has embraced innovation and their M-Pesa payment solution is an example of how telecoms have used mobile technology to bring about a revolution in the payment system in Tanzania in a span of 10 years.
Literally it means making payment activities mobile as they can be made on the move, at any time, wherever a person may be, in or out of the country.
Vodacom M-Pesa has championed the evolution of digital payments through innovation moving from just send and receive feature to a robust e-wallet capable of offering much more from loans, savings, overdraft to online payments.
M-Pesa has been linked to bank accounts, integrated into major service provide payments such governments, hospitals and merchants.
According to Director of MPesa Limited, Epimack Mbeteni Vodacom’s M-Pesa payment solution is an example of how telecoms have used mobile technology to bring about a revolution in the payment system in Tanzania in a span of 10 years.
“M-Pesa has played a leading role in the evolution of payment systems making payment activities mobile as they can now be made on the move, at any time, wherever a person may be, in or out of the country,” he said.
Adding, “And that’s not all, Vodacom M-Pesa has added yet another service to its offerings in order to meet customer demand by providing a standing order service to customers who can now set payments on a timer at a recurring date of their choosing,” Mbeteni explained.
The standing order service is a product enhancement that focuses on enabling MPesa customers to do more by doing less when making bill payments as well as send money from one person to another through automating their transaction and allow auto debit via M-Pesa.
Standing Order enables customers to set recurrent payments to send money and/ or Pay Bills like Luku and TV Subscriptions a fixed amount at specific intervals (for example, Once Off, Monthly, weekly.
Types of transactions that are eligible to standing orders include Luku, TV Subscriptions, Schools fees and P2P Transactions and can be accessed through the M-Pesa menu.
Commenting on experience of M-Pesa standing order service, long time M-Pesa customer, Yusuf Ahmed from Dar es Salaam said that he can now rest assured that monthly recurring expenses are taken care on without any worry.
“I have been using M-Pesa services for more than seven years and now I can set up standing order payment for my bill utilities and school fees for my children and do not have to worry about disruption of services or payment reminders as they are taken care of automatically.
I am enjoying this service as it also saves time to go and make various payments,” he said.
There is no telling what the future holds for mobile money payments but we do know that the possibilities are limitless and Vodacom M-Pesa is leading in terms of innovation
