Zantel strikes deal with nine banks

Dar es Salaam. Customers of Zantel’s EzyPesa platform can now make interbank transactions with nine commercial banks, thanks to agreements between the telecommunication company and financial institutions.

The company officially announced its partnership with the People Bank of Zanzibar (PBZ), NBC Bank Limited, NMB Bank Plc, Barclays Bank Tanzania, Amana Bank, Equity Bank, Access Bank, Exim Bank and Bank of Africa (BOA) here at the weekend.

“We have been working with these banks for sometime now and today, we are officially announcing our partnership in service delivery…..our agreements with the banks means that our customers can now transact from wallet to bank and vice versa, a development that is geared towards simplifying customers’ lives by giving them the option of doing bank transactions at their fingertips anytime and wherever they are in Tanzania,” the head of Zantel Zanzibar, Mr Mohammed Khamis Mussa, said.

The partnership is a milestone for EzyPesa users especially now that Tanzania is transforming into an e-wallet economy. With this development, Zantel aims to give its customers the easiest, yet safest platform to make various payments and conduct bank transactions. “We first started this journey by getting into an agreement with PBZ, later we decided to expand our partnership with other banks as well so that more EzyPesa users could have the option of enjoying bank transactions through EzyPesa,” he said. According to him, Zantel wanted to give its customers more options when it comes to mobile financial solutions as the modus operandi of Tanzania’s financial services is fast evolving to the e-wallet economy.

He further noted that apart from bank transactions, EzyPesa users can now make payments to government authorities in Zanzibar and Tanzania Mainland anytime.

“Simply dial EzyPesa Menu *150*02# and opt for number 8 where You can select ‘Zan e-Pay and UnionGov-ePay for Zanzibar government and Tanzania Mainland respectively,” he said.

Some of the payments that can be done include police fine, driving licence, VAT, VAT on import, stamp duty, immigration, tour clearance levy as well as payments to various ministries.

Speaking on behalf of banks that have partnered with Zantel to enable customers to transact via Ezypesa, NMB customers service manager Samweli Kimweri commended Zantel for reaching this milestone, noting that the partnership will definitely simplify banking services for Ezypesa customers.