VISA AND LEADING BANKS LAUNCH FIRST FREE MOBILE PAYMENTS SERVICE FOR TANZANIAN CONSUMERS

Bank of Tanzania Deputy Governor, Dr. Bernard Kibesse, speaks to invited guests when he officially launched Visa-on-mobile, a new digital banking solution product of  Visa Incorporated, which will be employed through member banks where transactions and payments can be done directly through the phone.

Visa’s acting General Manager for East Africa, Kevin Langley, speaks to invited guests during the launch.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 12 March 2019 – Consumers in Tanzania will now be able to send money to each other domestically without paying transaction fees, following the launch of Visa on Mobile, a service provided by Visa and 15 Tanzanian banks. The move is expected to accelerate the adoption of digital payments and follows the successful launch of the service in Kenya and Nigeria.

To use the service, a bank customer simply downloads their bank’s mobile app, looks for Visa on the application and pays for goods and services either by scanning the QR code or by using a USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) code at a merchant location. The service is free and secured by Visa, the world’s leading payment network.

Kevin Langley, Visa’s acting General Manager for East Africa said, “According to TanzaniaInvest, the mobile money scene in Tanzania is experiencing accelerated growth with transactions worth over US$1.6 billion conducted every month in 2018. If you take into account the amount spent on transaction fees alone, you can clearly see the value that our Visa on Mobile solution brings with no costs on transactions for consumers,” said

Visa has collaborated with the following banks to roll out the service in Tanzania: CRDB Bank, NMB Bank, National Bank of Commerce, Azania Bank Limited, TIB Corporate Bank Ltd, TPB Bank Plc, Akiba Commercial Bank Limited, DCB Commercial Bank Plc, Mkombozi Commercial Bank Plc, Mufindi Community Bank Limited, Peoples’ Bank of Zanzibar Limited, Uchumi Commercial Bank Limited, Mwalimu Commercial Bank PLC, Maendeleo Bank and Yetu Microfinance Bank.

Speaking on the launch of Visa on Mobile, Dr Bernard Y. Kibesse, Deputy Governor, Financial Stability and (Financial) Deepening (FSD), said: “Tanzania has made significant strides to enhance electronic payments and promote financial inclusion. The launch of Visa on Mobile demonstrates a significant step-change in the acceleration of the migration from cash to a digital economy in Tanzania which is good for all our communities.”

CRDB bank and NMB bank will have Visa on Mobile enabled on their banking apps to deliver this service to consumers and merchants starting today. The other 13 banks will be implementing this service in the coming weeks.

“The community set up in Tanzania, where people often send funds to family and friends is an added benefit to the solution that eliminates barriers such as transaction costs, while providing customers a convenient and secure experience,” Langley added.

Visa on Mobile will also be accepted at over 30,000 merchant locations and by 20,000 agents (popularly known as Wakala) across the country. Merchant locations include Shoppers, Century Cinema, Samaki Samaki, Marie Brown, Puma and Kikuu. The service will be aggregated by various partners in Tanzania.

“We are excited to see more merchants come on board every day as they begin to understand the benefits they will enjoy, including real-time notifications of payments entering their bank account and access to sales and transactions history. In addition, the solution brings the advantages of Visa’s global network, security, reliability and global acceptance and allows consumers to make payments both domestically and internationally,” Langley said.

Transactions are processed via Visa’s global network, VisaNet, applying the scale, security and reliability of Visa to mobile payments. Consumers will also be able to withdraw or deposit cash at an agent enabled on Visa on mobile.

The Visa on mobile implementation in Tanzania has been enhanced by the Visa Developer Platform, which allows all partner banks the ability to integrate the Visa on mobile APIs directly into their mobile banking apps. While rolling out a new solution with a bank typically can take a long time from development to implementation and testing, utilizing the Visa Developer platform interface reduced the time taken significantly. This helped to speed up the number of banks who have been able to roll out the Visa on mobile solution in Tanzania.

Visa on Mobile (formerly mVisa) is live in India, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Ghana. There are plans to launch in Uganda,Zambia and across Africa in the near future.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit vusa.visa.com/aboutvisa, www.visanewsmena.tumblr.comor follow us on Twitter @VisaNews

Media Queries

Emily Kaiga
Corporate Communications
Visa sub-Saharan Africa
T: +204285016
Mob : +254708516544
E-mail: ekaigaad@visa.com

Myoma Kapya
Hill+Knowlton Strategies Tanzania
Mob: +255712053464
Myoma.kapya@hkstrategies.co.tz