Vodacoms M-PESA moves to new platform

Through this platform, Vodacom is going to enable financial services in the country such as savings and loans, online payments, insurance.

Vodacom Tanzania is a cellular network offering GSM communication services across the country. It was launched in 2000 and is a subsidiary of Vodacom Group, South Africa, which is also a subsidiary of Vodafone Group UK. Mirambo is a minority shareholder. Vodacom has introduced many firsts in the Tanzanian market. One service is its M-PESA money transfer service. M-Pesa was launched in 2008 and is the first mobile money platform in Tanzania, with about 9 million customers.

This is a payment solution which does not require users to have bank accounts - an important consideration in Tanzania where millions of people do not operate bank accounts and can barely meet the minimum qualifications to open account. With M-PESA, Vodacom customers can deposit up to Tsh 5m/- for free, send and receive money and withdraw cash from any agent in the country. They can also access their bank accounts from their homes. M-Pesa’s reach is further augmented by its over 85,000 Mobile Money agent across the country.