UNLOCKING THE POWER OF GEOSPATIAL DATA IN MARKET GROWTH: FINANCIAL SECTOR REGULATORS LAUNCH THE FINANCIAL SERVICES REGISTRY

Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Governor, Prof. Florens Luoga (third left) presses a button to launch the Financial Services Registry (FSR) in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Others are BOT Deputy Governor, Dr. Bernard Kibesse (second left), DCB Commercial Bank CEO, Godfrey Ndalahwa (extreme left), Vodacom Tanzania Director of M-Commerce, Epimack Mbeteni (third right) and Tanzania Co-operative Development Commission (TCDC) Deputy Registrar, Collins Benedict (second right). 

Bank of Tanzania Governor Prof. Florens Luoga (centre) in group photo with from left, BOT Director of National Payment Systems, Bernard Dadi, DCB Commercial Bank CEO, Godfrey Ndalahwa, Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) CEO, Sosthenes Kewe, BOT Deputy Governor, Dr. Bernard Kibesse, Vodacom Tanzania Director of M-Commerce, Epimack Mbeteni and Tanzania Co-operative Development Commission (TCDC) Deputy Registrar, Collins Benedict. 

A cross section of stakeholders follow proceedings during the launch event.

Regulators of the financial sector in Tanzania supported by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) on February 27, 2020 launched the Financial Services Registry (FSR) which aims at mapping all financial services access points in the country.

FSR is a sustainable registry, that will map all financial services access points countrywide by capturing their geo-locations and type of services offered with the objective to unlock the power of geo-spatial data as a tool for business intelligence, decision making and strategic planning.

The regulators led by the Bank of Tanzania include the Tanzania Co-operative Development Commission (TCDC), Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority (TIRA) and the Capital Markets and Securities Authority (CMSA).

Bank of Tanzania and Chairperson of the National Council for Financial Inclusion, Prof. Florens Luoga, officially launched the FSR system by amplifying that: “Data is the new oil” and that “those who can use it effectively and for their benefit will reap its fruits and flourish.”

He said the financial services registry will provide the engine to consolidate and unlock the power of data to encourage growth, innovation and collaboration within the financial sector of Tanzania, which is ready for this new decade of digitization, industrialization and connectivity.

Finally, he called for collaboration from all sector players and individual agents and outlet owners to ensure a smooth and successful mass registration and hence for the betterment of the financial sector.

FSR, will be the first registry of its kind in sub-Sahara Africa that automates the data collection process and provides digital access to near real-time data. As such it will serve as a national system for tracking growth and distribution of financial access points and inform key stakeholders of the National Financial Inclusion Framework (NFIF) 2018-2022 and the public in general.

Further, FSR will provide strategic information to Financial Service Providers to ensure consumer needs are met and services are brought closer to actual consumer groups.

Bank of Tanzania has taken a lead role in the operationalization of FSR due its active role in the NFIF Secretariat and its role as regulator overseeing the e-Money Act. The system was fully built by developers of the Bank of Tanzania.

Between February to June 2020 the Bank of Tanzania will send field teams across the country to register outlets offering financial services. These will include bank branches, ATMs, bank agents and merchants, mobile money agents and merchants, SACCOs, microfinance banks and institutions as well as insurance brokers, agents and capital markets’ brokers and nomads.

This registration will be done through the android platform FSR collect built by the Bank of Tanzania. Each registered outlet will be issued with FSR ID, a certificate that contains both a human readable number and a QR code, which will be publicly displayed at the outlet.

Data will be made accessible at various user levels, public, financial service providers and regulators. Initially the location of services will be made available but over the coming months new datasets and features will be added. These will include further ability to analyse the data in relation to other socio-economic data, such as social services, education and healthcare as well as in relation to economic activity at locations, e.i. agricultural markets.