TANZANIA:Major telecoms attain financial interoperability

 VODACOM, the leading telecom in Tanzania is finally joining three others -- Airtel, Tigo and Zantel -- for subscribers to transfer money across multiple networks enabling the country achieve full interoperability.

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor, Prof. Benno Ndulu said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that Vodacom Tanzania was joining others in the networks interoperability agreemement.

He said the move was vital in expansion of financial services and promotion of financial inclusion. “I have just been informed that Vodacom has joined...this makes Tanzania the first country in the world to achieve full interoperability among its mobile network operators,” he said in his opening remarks at a workshop on financial inclusion jointly organised by BoT and the World Bank.

Tigo, Airtel and Zantel reached interoperability agreement in 2014 to allow their customers transfer money into each others electronic wallets.

Following the agreement facilitated by World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) and BoT, bilateral pricing agreements were signed between Tigo, Airtel and Zantel in accordance with the wallet to wallet interoperablity rules.

All have implemented and launched the services with Tigo and Airtel wallet to wallet service starting in September 2014 and Tigo and Zantel service in December 2014.

Vodacom, the biggest player in the industry concluded its bilateral negotiations with Tigo in February 2015 to allow their customers to send and receive money directly into each other’s wallets.

According to the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) there were over 34.1 million subscribers in the country as of June 2015.

Industry sources say the firms are waiting for internal processes to be ready before customers are allowed to use money transfer service across different operators.

Vodacom’s Chief Officer for Mobile Commerce, Jacques Voogt confirmed to the `Daily News’ yesterday that customers would be able to transfer money with others across multiple operators from today.

“We switched on last night but got some technical problems. We are switching on again this evening to allow money transfer across multiple operators tomorrow,” he said.

Earlier, Prof Ndulu said there was a challenge to achieving broader interoperability beyond mobile network operators to be applicable to banks and other service providers.

He said that would enable the infrastructure to be optimally used for financial services thus enhancing convenient competition and plotting out new tools and products for consumers.

Mobile telephone companies are credited for promoting financial inclusion through their provision of financial services to reach the unbankable majority.

According to Finscope survey of 2013, financal services had reached to 76 per cent of the population by 2013 from 44 per cent in 2009.

BoT has set new targets of achieving usage of formal financial services under the National Financial Inclusion Framework (NFIF 2014/17) of having 80 per cent of adult population using a financial access point.

The Monetary Statement of the first half of the 2015/16 fiscal year also shows that BoT is targeting to have at least 70 per cent of the population living within five kilometres of a financial access point by 2017.

SOURCE:DAILYNEWS