Mobile money has played a key role in transforming accessibility of financial services to 57 per cent of Tanzanians, up from 27 per cent in 2009, a report by FinScope Tanzania has revealed.
The report said one in two adults on the Tanzanian mainland were using mobile money services, though on the island of Zanzibar only one in five have signed up.
FinScope noted financial services such as small savings, loan groups, shops and supply chain credit and money lenders are still popular, with half of the population using them together with other services.
“Although none among them are regulated or supervised by a formal financial institution, the savings and loan groups are owned and run by the people who use them. This, as well as the products and services which are carefully tailored to their market, may explain their popularity,” reads part of the report.
The Financial Sector Deepening Trust report was presented in Dar es Salaam by Sosthenes Kewe, FinScope’s technical director, at an occasion attended by the governor of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Prof Benno Ndulu.
