By Victor Karega
The Citizen Correspondent
Dar es Salaam. The mobile banking that started nearly three years ago has proved to be a catalyst to economic growth especially in rural areas, the minister has said.Using their mobile phones, consumers and communities take advantage of the mobile commerce innovations, which enable them to conduct a wider range of financial transactions conveniently.

Speaking at the re-launching of Airtel’s mobile money platform this week in Dar es Salaam, the Finance and Economic Affairs minister, Mustafa Makulo  said the service has to a greater extent supported farmers, miner and fishermen that all contribute to the economic growth of the country.

“I’m very pleased to see how mobile services are complementing the banking sector… This is in tandem with the second generation of financial sector reforms that our government put in place two years ago,” he said.

He said the boom of mobile banking in the country was enabling the majority of rural population to have an access to financial services, which was one of the government’s objectives outlined in its development blueprint, Vision 2025.Airtel Money replaces ZAP, a mobile banking platform under the then Zain before its rebranding.

“Airtel Moneys’ new platform will provide consumers with a robust offering of products that cuts across Mobile banking, Service payments, Top ups and Money Transfer services” said the Airtel Managing Director Sam Elangalloor.

“Our rural populations have often been left out of the financial system due to cost and distance from urban centres. With Airtel Money, both banked and unbanked customers are able to take advantage of the Airtel expansive network to make affordable, fast and secure financial transactions.”Currently, almost all the four major mobile phone networks have mobile banking platform.

 enabling customers to make different financial transactions.According to the Minister of Communications Science and Technology, Prof Makame Mbarawa the viability of telecommunication products provided the perfect opportunity for entrepreneurial entities to seek convenient solutions.

He said the recent development in the mobile banking poised a challenge to conventional financial services providers to seek innovative ways of to make their services inclusive to all Tanzanians.With a successful mobile banking platform and an effective education, experts saymore awareness can lead to greater demand for m-commerce services.

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