VODACOM UNVEILS "MAISHA NI KUJIONGEZA NA M-PESA"

• Introduces lending solutions for vehicle owners and drivers, business owners, agents, customers as well as smart phone loans through device financing scheme.

Dar es Salaam – August 23, 2023: The leading technology and communications company, Vodacom Tanzania PLC, through its M-Pesa service, has introduced a new campaign dubbed ‘Maisha ni Kujiongeza na M-Pesa’ targeting individual customers, mobile money agents, vehicle owners and drivers as well as merchants who will benefit from different both new and improved products such as M-Pawa, Songesha, Wakala Songesha, Wezesha Wakala that will allow them to keep up with the advancement in digital economy in Tanzania and beyond.

Speaking during the launch in Dar es Salaam, M-Pesa Director, Epimack Mbeteni pointed out that for 15 years M-Pesa has been part of Tanzania’s mobile money revolution playing a crucial role in bridging the financial gap inclusion for more than 17 million Tanzanians across the country as reported by the TCRA.

“I am delighted to inform our esteemed customers and Tanzanians in general that we have broadened our M-Pesa portfolio with both savings and lending products. This includes the introduction of Mgodi, a financial service that allows M-Pesa customers to save and access mid-sized loans of up to 30 days. We are also introducing a special category of loans for vehicle owners and drivers which are Chomoka and Insurance Premium Financing (IPF). Through Chomoka, drivers will now will be able to fuel up on credit at all filling stations across the country that have the LIPA kwa SIMU service while IPF will enable them complete payments for their insurance cover whether they don’t have the enough money or need the full premium amount. The objective is to ensure they remain operational with ease and convenience” said Mr. Mbeteni.

In supporting the government’s drive towards bridging the existing smartphone penetration and internet usage gap, Vodacom has introduced device financing to enable Tanzanians to access entry level and advanced smartphones at affordable prices starting from shilling 20,000/- and with flexible payment plans as low as shilling 900/- daily.

The M-Pesa Director added that there have been major improvements in other lending portfolio saying, “Our widely used Songesha product that for some time now has been doing wonders in facilitating our customers to complete transactions when they have insufficient balance in their mobile wallets has been greatly improved. Now, customers can take multiple loans, perform partial repayments and take another loan until they reach their maximum limit. Not only that, we have also increased customers’ Songesha limits by 20%, while adding an option that allows them to Songesha bundles directly through the bundles menu *149*01# not just via M-Pesa like it was before.”

“Through M-Pawa, customers no longer have to save in order to get a loan but if they do save then this allows them to higher loan limits. As I speak, almost 400,000 first time customers can access this service. However, it is important to note that we consider customers’ score card for their limits to be increased from month to month,” he added.

The campaign has gone further to introduce Business Loans for M-Pesa registered merchants based on their transactional pool and customer base. These loans will help to boost their working capital and overall business operations. On the side of M-Pesa agents, through the Wezesha Wakala product, agents can access business loans that can help fund their side businesses. The product has been further improved by doubling agents’ limits whereas over 76,000 agents countrywide can enjoy this service. Nonetheless, Wakala Songesha, an interest-free loan that caters to liquidity shortages has also received a boost allowing agents to access the overdraft service at no cost to them whilst enjoying massive limit increases that have been implemented for all agents.

Mr. Mbeteni concluded by saying “as we all know life is a journey of continuous improvement. We all have the potential to grow and become better versions of ourselves. But in order to reach our full potential, we need to have a clear vision of what we want to achieve. We also need to find the right partners who will support us along the way. M-Pesa is that partner. Similarly, we have partners who support us in making this a reality. Our financing partners include Finca Microfinance Bank, NCBA Bank, Mwanga Hakika Bank, DTB Bank and NMB Bank while Credable and Kuunda are our technology partners.”