Prime
Why forgery, counterfeiting are leading financial crimes in Tanzania

According to the 2024 Crime and Traffic Incidents Statistics report, authorities recorded 693 forgery cases out of a total 924 financial crimes reported during the year. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The figures highlight the growing vulnerability of Tanzania’s financial landscape, particularly in areas of high economic activity and digital transaction volume
Dar es Salaam. Forgery has become the most dominant financial crime in Tanzania, accounting for over 75 percent of all recorded financial offences in 2024, raising fresh concerns about the integrity of the country’s financial, digital and regulatory systems.
According to the 2024 Crime and Traffic Incidents Statistics report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), authorities recorded 693 forgery cases out of a total 924 financial crimes reported during the year. This included a 32.4 percent surge in the counterfeiting of banknotes, with cases rising from 105 in 2023 to 139 in 2024.
The figures highlight the growing vulnerability of Tanzania’s financial landscape, particularly in areas of high economic activity and digital transaction volume. Kinondoni District in Dar es Salaam recorded the highest number of forgery cases (137), followed by Ilala (122), Temeke (61) and Arusha (49). Dodoma, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Mbeya, Coast and Tabora also recorded significant numbers.
Experts say the high incidence of forgery and counterfeiting in these hotspots underscores systemic weaknesses in verification processes and limited adoption of advanced digital tools.
“This means forged reports intended to unlock funding or steal money, even if not from a bank,” said co-founder and partner at Bankable and FIMCO Ivan Tarimo. He stressed the need for transparent, digitised verification systems, noting that the technology already exists but has not been widely adopted.
Mr Tarimo urged policymakers to embrace bold and targeted solutions in regions where the problems are most acute.
“Reluctance to digitise verification processes at scale, despite growing digital penetration, has left institutions vulnerable to high-quality fake documents, from tax certificates to AI-enhanced identity cards,” he said.
The impact of such vulnerabilities goes beyond banks. According to the same NBS report, theft from central government offices rose dramatically in 2024, from seven incidents in 2023 to 52 this year, a staggering increase of over 640 percent. Theft in local government and parastatal entities also rose.
Bankers say they were taking aggressive steps to address the growing threat. For instance, CRDB Bank chief executive Abdulmajid Nsekela said the lender has invested heavily in artificial intelligence, biometrics and automation to enhance fraud detection and document verification.
“To address this, we have strategically invested in advanced technological solutions, including sophisticated fraud detection and biometric verification systems, which enable real-time monitoring and early threat detection,” he told The Citizen.
He added that the bank continues to train its staff and improve internal protocols to better respond to emerging threats.
Banking analyst Kelvin Mkwawa pointed to the absence of a centralised, tamper-proof system for verifying key customer documents—such as IDs, business licences and certificates of incorporation—as a major enabler of forgery. He also cited the lack of data sharing between banks, allowing fraudsters to use forged documents across multiple institutions undetected.
“Forgery detection systems are often manual and easy to bypass with high-quality fakes,” said Mr Mkwawa, noting that too much responsibility falls on front-office staff who lack AI-powered tools for authentication.
He also criticised weak coordination among public institutions and outdated legal frameworks that do not adequately address digital forgeries or AI-driven fraud techniques.
Collusion between bank staff and criminals, he said, is another underreported but significant concern.
Yet amid the challenges, local innovation is offering hope.
Smart EFD co-founder and CEO Prisca Magori said the firm has developed a mobile app that issues electronic tax receipts integrated directly with the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). Each receipt includes a QR code that instantly verifies the transaction via the TRA server.
“You scan the receipt with your camera and in seconds, you get the name, amount and whether it’s legitimate,” she said. The system auto-generates reports for the TRA and makes fraudulent tax documents far more difficult to circulate.
The innovation, designed with small businesses in mind, is already providing a scalable solution to combat forgery in Tanzania’s commercial centres.
Still, experts warn that technology alone is not enough. What’s needed is a coordinated national response.
“The tools are here. The innovators are ready. And the crimes are getting more sophisticated. What’s missing is coherence, across banks, government agencies and regulators,” Mr Mkwawa said.
Unless those gaps are closed, forgery will remain not only the country’s leading financial crime, but also a glaring symptom of structural inertia in a financial system rapidly digitising while still anchored to outdated, paper-based processes.