Call to extend mobile financial services to rural areas

The call was made by Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Ashantu Kijaji in Dar es Salaam on Thursday when addressing an Africa Digital banking Summit.

She said the move would ease farmers, pastoralists and extension officers in accessing banking services in their respective areas.

“Mobile financial services in rural areas will help farmers to access markets and also be able to access loans,” she said.

According to her, the system will provide extension workers and farmers a simple way to purchase agricultural and veterinary inputs.

The minister told the summit that mobile banking services should not be centred in urban areas while neglecting marginalized groups in rural areas.

“Banks and mobile companies need to be responsible in assisting farmers with information to market their produce including prices,” she said.She also pointed out that it was their duty to create awareness to farmers and extension officers to benefit from their services.

Despite the growth of mobile banking in the country, a growing percentage of people in rural areas still were yet to benefit from the services, she said.

It was against this background that it was felt that the disparity between urban and rural in accessing mobile financial services could retard the country’s effort to shift to electronic commerce.

The minister assured that transactions would never be hacked as the responsible authority, TCRA, will guard against it according to the National Payment System Act 2015.

The Director for National Payment System at the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Bernard Dadi said mobile financial services had played a crucial role in promoting financial inclusion in the country.

He said a FinScope 2013 survey released earlier this month showed that the number of adults in the country with access to formal financial services had reached 58 per cent, from 17 per cent 7 years ago.

Chief Executive Officer of Umoja Switch Tanzania Danfold Mbilinyi stressed mobile and bank sharing in mobile money transactions, saying it increased the economies of scale.

According to him, sharing was the fundamental platform of success in the digital era as banking communication was still low, with 14 per cent compared to 70 per cent mobile money.