Bank of Tanzania now studies mobile money transfer charges

Mtwara. The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) said it was research ing on the mobile money transfer fees after receiving complaints that the tariffs were rising sharply. The central bank now wants to come up with guidelines on the matter.

BoT’s National Payment System (NPS) assistant manager Albert Cesari told journalists here that the research was still in its early stages and therefore could not disclose much details.

“It is true that we are preparing guidelines. We will inform the public once we complete the process,” he told journalists.

Explaining about the mobile money transfer, he said that issues related to electronic money were under the BoT and not the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and therefore all complaints should be directed to the former. He named the electronic money platforms as Azam Pesa, T-Pesa, HaloPesa, Ezy Pesa, Airtel Money, Tigo Pesa and M-Pesa.

Explaining about the NPS, he said, it is mandated by the powers under the BoT Act 2006 to regulate the industry.

He said the NPS Act had two regulations to assist in regulating the industry that included the payment systems, licensing and approvals regulations 2015 and the Electronic Money Regulations 2015.

According to him, there were 43 banks and 19 non-bank financial institutions which also provide the service.

According to the central bank, the number of active registered accounts for mobile money was 29.4 million at the end of December 2020, compared with 24.4 million and 27.2 million accounts at the end of December 2019 and June 2020, respectively.

The mobile money transactions rose 8.5 percent between June and September 2020 as Tanzania increasingly shifts to a less cash economy.

Customers transacted a total of Sh11.5 trillion via six mobile money platforms.