What the increase in mobile money users means for financial inclusion

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania mobile money subscription rose by 9.8 percent in the first quarter of 2022, indicating a growth in financial inclusion, a new Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) report shows.

According to the report, the country had 35.7 million subscribers as of March 2022, up from 32.5 million recorded in January.

This suggests that the East African nation registered 3.2 million more mobile money subscribers in the first quarter of 2022.

The increase is based on a count of all active Sim Cards with mobile money service accounts that had an activity or were used at least once in the previous three months between March 2022 and May 2022, according to the regulator.

TCRA acting head of communications Semu Mwakyanjala told media yesterday that the increase in the number of users of communication services reflects the broad growth of the communication sector.

He said the mobile money industry was rapidly expanding against the backdrop of increased internet access and smartphone usage and has the potential to accelerate Tanzania’s economic growth.

“The communication sector’s growth trend is satisfactory, indicating Tanzania’s hopes of achieving the goal of building a modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based economy are ripe,” stressed Mr Mwakyanjala.

Emphasing: “We, the Communication Authority, do not doubt that this growth will provide opportunities for young people to continue to benefit from communication for long-term dvelopment.”

Official data has it that Vodacom Tanzania’s M-Pesa product had 40 percent of the market share in the first quarter of 2022, followed by Tigo at 26 percent.

Airtel registered 21 percent of the market share, Halotel had nine percent, and Tanzania Telecommunication Company Limited (TTCL) with its T-Pesa product was at the bottom with four percent.

While fixed network subscriptions stood at 0.1 percent between January and March 2022, mobile network subscriptions soared to 99.9 percent.

Some 55.37 million users were recorded as using mobile network services up until March 2022, compared to 71,894 users of fixed networks during the same review period.

Furthermore, three telecommunications service providers, namely, Vodacom Tanzania, Airtel, and Tigo, continued to report the highest number of communication users.

Vodacom Tanzania had 16.737 million users as of March this year, up from 16.165 million users in January.

Tigo had a record of 14.898 million users in March, up from 14.620 million users in January.

Airtel had 14,743,726 users in March, down from 14,760,361 users in January.

The figures suggest that all telcos, except, Airtel, recorded a rise in the number of subscribers in the first quarter, with Voda recording the highest number at 572,172, followed by Tigo at 278,111.

TTCL was placed at third, recording 76,674 new subscribers, with Halotel and Smile belonging to the fourth and fifth position bagging 39,626 and 709 new subscribers respectively.

Things were different for Airtel which recorded a downward trend at 16,635 subscribers compared with January.

The total number of newly subscribed mobile communication services users at that review period totaled 967,292.

In the digital broadcasting field, Startimes continued to record a large number of broadcast service users.

Up until March 2022, Startimes had 2.045 million active decoders, with Azam coming in second with 824,320 active decoders, and Multichoice’s DSTV rounding out the top three in the television broadcasting subscription with 237,922 active television set- top boxes.

Tabling his ministry’s 2022/23 financial year budget in Parliament in Dodoma a few days ago, the minister for Information, Communications, and Information Technology, Mr Nape Nnauye, expressed the government’s commitment to ensuring the growth of the communication sector.

“We are committed to increasing the number of communications users in the country, including reaching the National Telecommunications Backbone to all corners of vast Tanzania,” said Mr Nnauye.