Unguja. For years, cash has been at the centre of everyday transactions in Zanzibar. From paying for a bus ride and buying food at a neighbourhood shop to settling bills and sending money to family, notes and coins have remained a familiar part of daily life. But a quiet shift is taking place.
Increasingly, some of those transactions are moving from physical cash to mobile phones, digital wallets and smart cards, bringing cashless payments closer to the everyday routines of ordinary consumers.
One of the clearest examples is now visible on Zanzibar's roads, where the newly introduced electric bus service has brought with it a payment experience significantly different from the traditional daladala journey.
Instead of handing money to a conductor, passengers using the ZanBus electric buses pay through smart cards integrated with the Mixx by Yas digital payment platform. A passenger boards, taps or presents a card, the fare is deducted and the journey continues.
The new system is also becoming a real-life test of how quickly consumers can adapt to a cashless way of paying for an essential daily service.
The electric buses began commercial operations on August 1, 2026, following the launch of the first fleet of 15 buses.
The wider public transport project is expected to expand significantly, making the payment system an important part of Zanzibar's broader transport and digital transformation agenda.
A different way to pay for the journey
Under the current fare structure, regular passengers on the new electric buses pay Sh700 per journey, while students and senior citizens aged 70 and above pay Sh350, or half the regular fare. The initial electric bus routes include Malindi–Buyu and Malindi–Abeid Amani Karume International Airport.
“On the first day, it was challenging to use the system or where to get the cards but as time goes on, passengers are learning from one another, while I and the bus drivers are guiding the passengers,” said electric bus conductor Rajab Mohammed.
While the technology for cashless payments is already available, consumers are still learning how to incorporate it into their routines.
The first phase consists of 15 electric buses, but Zanzibar's ambitions extend far beyond that initial fleet.
Mobile money initially became popular largely because it offered a convenient alternative to physically carrying cash or travelling to a bank to send money to another person.
The next stage of digital finance is increasingly about direct payments for goods and services.
Unguja resident Maryam Abdallah shared how the change has affected her own household.
“Since the services started, I cannot recall giving cash to my four children who use these buses daily to and from school,” she said.
For small traders, restaurants, shops and other service providers, accepting digital payments can provide an alternative to handling cash throughout the day.
For financial service providers, growing digital activity can create opportunities to develop services around payments, savings, merchant solutions and other financial products.
“We are proud to work with the government, institutions and the private sector to facilitate digital payments for a range of services that directly affect people’s daily lives,” Mixx by Yas said in a comment to the development in Zanzibar.
The projects include parking payments under the Stone Town Municipal Authority, payments to clove farmers through the Zanzibar State Trading Corporation (ZSTC), as well as the payment of traffic fines.
The firm said Mixx has also enabled the Kikoba savings service in partnership with the Department of Cooperative Development, SOS Children’s Villages, Zanzibar Maisha Bora Foundation, as well as various civil society and community-based organisations.
“These projects demonstrate how Mixx is going beyond payment services to build a broader digital financial services ecosystem that makes people’s lives easier, enhances transparency and the efficiency of collections, and brings more people into formal financial services,” it said in a statement, adding that Zanzibar’s journey to digital economy is growing rapidly.
“We see Zanzibar moving more rapidly towards a digital economy over the next five to 10 years. Mobile payments will continue to evolve from being an alternative means of payment to becoming an integral part of everyday life—from transport and commerce to government services, tourism, healthcare, education and financial services.”
“At Mixx, we believe this future will be built through systems that connect citizens, businesses, government institutions and the private sector within a single digital payments ecosystem.
The goal is not simply to facilitate payments, but to create an environment where every citizen and business, including those that have not been fully reached by banking services, can easily access and use financial services.”
