Vodacom payment Tanzania system extended to other networks

Dar es Salaam. Vodacom Tanzania has extended its M-Pesa payment system (Lipa Kwa M-Pesa) to enable subscribers of other networks to directly remit their payments through the platform.

The Lipa Kwa Simu service is meant to boost financial inclusion while smoothening mobile payments whereby merchants and business owners using Lipa kwa M-Pesa will now accept payments from other mobile money networks.

This service will make payments easy in bars, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, petrol stations, cinema halls, pharmacies, hardware stores because customers will no longer be required to carry wads of money. The Vodacom Tanzania director of M-Pesa, Epimack Mbeteni, said the company saw the need to extend its payment system for both retail and online from other networks and mobile banking while influencing adoption of digital payments as the mainstream mode of payment.

“Lipa kwa Simu is a revolutionary move by Vodacom towards driving a cashless society by enabling inter-operability in payments across all networks and banks,” he said.

Through Lipa kwa Simu, he said, merchants and business owners can receive payments from all networks and banks increasing their efficiency and security. “As for customers - regardless of the network they are using - they can now make payments to LIPA at an a normal cost, thus doing away with the tendency of carrying wads of cash around,” he said.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) director of Taxpayer Services and Education, Richard Kayombo, said Vodacom’s move would ease and improve public payment systems, as customers would henceforth be able to pay several public utilities and obligations through the platform from the comfort of their homes or work places. Ms Mwanaidi Juma, a customer, said the new Vodacom Tanzania product is a game changer as the country moves towards a cashless economy.