Vodafone is truly working on making M-Pesa ubiquitous across East Africa with the enablement of mobile money transactions between Kenya and Tanzania.
It should be remembered that M-Pesa is the brain-child of Vodafone and it won worldwide fame which it emerged as a successful initiative in Kenya being pushed by a Vodafone related company, Safaricom.
Now Vodacom Tanzania has partnered with Safaricom in Kenya to make it easy for people in both countries to conduct transactions via M-Pesa. This should bring about increased trade opportunities between the two most populous countries – (Kenya – 44million & Tanzania – 49million) in East Africa, with 25 million M-Pesa subscribers. Vodacom Tanzania controls 65% market share of mobile financial services in Tanzania while Safaricom controls 80% in Kenya.
“With a substantial unbanked population transacting mainly in cash, the Tanzania-Kenya corridor represents a significant opportunity for M-Pesa to give people and companies an accessible, low-cost alternative to traditional international remittances,” said Michael Joseph, Vodafone Director of Mobile Money.
According to Safaricom’s CEO, Bob Collymore, “We believe we have entered a new chapter in the continuing growth story of M-Pesa. Enabling transactions between Kenya and Tanzania will make it ever more convenient for businesses and individuals to transact across borders and unleash the transformative power of a first in its kind cross border payment system.
On his part, Vodacom Tanzania’s MD Mr. Rene Meza said “We have looked at the hurdles that our customers need to overcome in order to send and receive money across to our neighbours in Kenya and have come up with a safe, secure and convenient way to do so. From today, one doesn’t need to send money by suka wa basi au konda or incur hefty charges to transfer school fees, buy goods or settle business payments, he or she can do so from their MPesa wallet and ….from the comfort of their home anytime the need arises.”
According to the World Bank, formal remittances between Tanzania and Kenya were around $133 million in 2012, money which Vodafone is now seeking a slice of through the new deal.
In a related development, Vodacom Tanzania recently announced a mobile money interoperability agreement in Tanzania between Tigo Pesa and Vodacom’s M-Pesa
