Tanzania: Number of Mobile Money Subscribers Rise By 4.7%

By Gadiosa Lamtey

Dar es Salaam — The number of mobile money subscribers rose by 4.7 per cent during the third quarter of last year (the first quarter of 2018/19) as telecommunication operators intensified their competition amid changing market sentiments.

Mobile money and data are increasingly becoming important sources of revenue for telecommunication firm, beating voice as subscriber's' preferences change.

The Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) latest reports show that the country's six mobile money operators had a total of 20,895,572 subscribers as of September 2018, slightly up from 20,855,164 registered at the end of June 2018.

The Quarterly Communications Statistics from July to September in 2018 showed that Vodacom (M-pesa), Airtel (Airtel money), Tigo (Tigopesa), Halotel (Halopesa), Zantel (Ezypesa) and TTCL (Tpesa) managed to boost the mobile money subscribers.

"Vodacom's M-Pesa maintained its top position with its subscriber number rising to 8,935,552 in September from 8,642,262 in June," read part of the report.

The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange (DSE) listed company closed the first quarter with a 43 per cent market share while Tigo's Tigo Pesa remained on the second slot with a 34 per cent slice as its mobile money subscriber numbers rose to 3.4 million in September last year from 3.1 million recorded in July.

Number of Tigo pesa subscribers increased to 7.1 million in September from 6.9 million in July while those of TTCL Pesa increased to 190,322 in September from 124,304 subscribers in July last year.

Airtel emerged third with the market share of 16 per cent while Halotel and Ezypesa followed with four and two per cent respectively.

The report shows that Halopesa recorded a shrinking number of mobile money subscribers to 768,055 in September last year from 975,547 registered in July.

SOURCE:THE CITIZEN