AfricaPress-Tanzania: TIGO Tanzania has entered into an agreement with Rungwe Small Tea Growers Association to facilitate payments to over 8,000 tea growers in Rungwe (Tukuyu), Busokelo and Kyela in Mbeya Region.
The service, which will be called ‘Malipo ya Chai kwa Tigo Pesa’, is an innovative mobile money transfer service that is available on Tigo mobile financial service platform, Tigo Pesa.
Tigo Tanzania Southern Zone Director Aidan Komba said: “We are happy to be partnering with Rungwe Small Tea Growers Association through Malipo ya Chai kwa Tigo Pesa service on our Tigo Pesa platform which will provide a practical solution to their payments and daily financial transactions.”
Mr Komba said farmers were first required to register and subscribe to receive the service through their association, upon which they were provided with information on collection, transportation, auctioning and the purchase of their produce through the association.
Once the money from the sale is received in the accounts of the association, Tigo Pesa through Malipo ya Chai service transfers it directly to farmers who have registered for the service, with the farmers being alerted of the payments via an SMS message instantly.
The farmers are then afforded the convenience to withdraw, transfer or conduct other transactions as they wish via the Tigo Pesa platform and a wide network of agents.
Chief Executive Officer of Rungwe Small Tea Grower Association Lebi Hudson said: “We would like to thank Tigo Tanzania for ensuring that our association is now going to be a cashless entity. The farmers were used to the normal and old form of carrying cash, which to be honest, poses a serious security challenge to the farmers, especially on days when we have collected our dues.”
The over 8,000 tea growers need not worry about where they will be able to receive or withdraw their dues.
The service will also provide farmers the efficiency of being able to receive and access their cash from anywhere in the country, enabling them to conduct transactions through their mobile phones via Tigo’s wide and reliable network of Tigo Pesa agents countrywide.
