Telecom service providers Millicom and Vodacom have signed a partnership agreement to allow users greater interoperability between mobile wallets in Tanzania
The agreement will allow four million customers of Millicom’s Tigo Pesa to exchange money directly with seven million users of Vodacom’s M-Pesa at no additional cost across the country.
Rene Meza, managing director of Vodacom, said, “This is a great evolution of the mobile money service in Tanzania. Our customers will soon be able to directly access the money received through Tigo Pesa and use it for whatever purpose they may have without necessarily having to cash it out.”
Arthur Bastings, executive vice-president of Millicom, added that with Tigo Pesa customers will have Africa’s first universal mobile money exchange system. “They will be able to safely and securely transact with millions more people across the country. We hope many more Tanzanians will choose mobile money so that everyone can be benefited and we can extend financial inclusion even further. We also intend to pioneer similar agreements with networks elsewhere.”
As Vodacom has been upgrading its M-Pesa offering in the country, it is expected that the agreement will come into effect by the end of 2015.
