AIRTEL PARTNERS WITH MINISTRY OF LANDS IN PAYING BILLS THROUGH AIRTEL MONEY

The Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr William Lukuvi shakes hands with Airtel Tanzania Corporate Communication and Regulatory Affairs Director, Ms Beatrice Singano in Dodoma yesterday shortly after the two announced the use of Airtel-Money for land tax collection.

The Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr William Lukuvi explains a point to the audience. Looking on is Airtel Tanzania Corporate Communication and Regulatory Affairs Director, Ms. Beatrice Singano.

Airtel Tanzania the Smartphone Network has partnered with the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Settlement Development (MLHHSD) whereby Airtel customers can now pay their land bills through Airtel Money. The move is aimed at further promoting and deepening financial inclusion among the Tanzanians by easing payment processes where customers had to travel to the Ministry or find nearest bank to pay their land bills.

As per the latest statistics from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Tanzania has more than 260 million mobile money subscriptions with total mobile money transactions value pegged at more than TZS 8 trillion. The launch of Land bills payment through Airtel money will increase the total number of subscription as well as mobile money subscribers country wide.

Speaking at a special ceremony to announce the Pay Bill through Airtel Money Minister of Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development (MLHHSD), Honorable William Lukuvi said that government’s innovation and efforts of introducing a state of art government payment through Electronic Payment Gateway (GePG) has ease the process of acquiring bills and making payments for the public. ‘This model of paying government bills has resulted in many benefits such as proper record keeping, timely reporting, reduced leakages, time saving and fraud prevention as well as increasing revenues. For that reason, we are happy with this milestone that Airtel through Airtel Money has extended the land bills payment service to the Ministry of Lands where the public can now use Airtel Money to paying land bills”.

This is a very convenient way of making land bills payment that help customers save time when making government payment any time anywhere at the comfort of their homes, insisted Honourable William Lukuvi.

Honorable William Lukuvi applauded Airtel adding that “We understand that Airtel adopted GePG payment system way back partnering with Ministry of Land today will increase our bills collection which in turn will increase government tax collection exercise. I call upon all Airtel customers who own Land to collect their bills either electronically or physically from the Ministry of Lands and pay their bills using Airtel Money.

Speaking at the same occasion, Airtel Tanzania Corporate Communications and Regulatory Affairs Director Ms. Beatrice Singano said that “Supporting government plan to increase financial inclusion in Tanzania has been one of Airtel’s strategic objectives. We understand the importance of tax payment and revenue collection to the government as it is the only way to achieve strategic project development. We will continue partnering with our government agencies and institutious to facilitate ease in paying government Taxes, fees and charges

Ms, Singano called Tanzanians to continue using all Airtel Digital services as they are innovative and user friendly. ‘It is important to understand that Tanzanians own Airtel by 49% through the Government of Tanzania. Using Airtel services means you are using your own firm’s product and services. Our aim is to continue serving Tanzanians better with products and services that cater for their today’s digital lifestyle.

She added that in order for a customer to complete land bill payments related to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Settlement Development (MLHHSD), has to follow the below steps

Dial *150*60# to access your Airtel Money menu Select option 5 Make Payment

Select option: 5 Government Payments

Select option 1: Enter Control Number

Enter the Amount

Enter PIN

After completion of payment, a customer will receive an SMS receipt confirming the transaction. The e-receipt is acceptable as proof of the payment and eases traceability of the transaction because it is easy to save, retrieve and trace as opposed to physical receipts that could easily be misplaced or damaged.

Airtel Money is currently connected to over 1000 billers including utility service providers and is also integrated with over 40 financial institutions which allow customers to withdrawal, make payment and savings. To support the Government agenda on financial Inclusion we have rolled out close to 1,000 Airtel Money Branches across the country. Airtel’s Services are of course competitively priced.