Mobile money transactions in Tanzania doubled in the last three years, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The information is included in the Fund’s report titled “Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa” published in April 2016.
The report also indicates that mobile money accounts exceed 30% of the adult Tanzanian population in 2015.
The mobile money subscriptions reached 17.6 million as of December 2015 up from 16.5 million the prior month, the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) reported.
According to the same source, M-Pesa from Vodacom leads the market share in Tanzania with 45% as of December 2015.
It is followed by Tigo-Pesa with 30%, Airtel Money with 23% and Ezy-Pesa from Zantel with 2%.
Tanzanians using mobile money products are transacting an average of USD1.6bn per month according to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Financial Stability Report published in December 2015.
This volume places Tanzania among the world’s leaders on mobile money usage ahead of developed countries.
Tanzania currently represents 3.1% of the world’s total transactions via mobile money products according to the World Bank.
In addition, Tanzania approximately represents 2% of the total mobile money accounts registered in the world according to KPMG.
The same source assures that this market would more than double by 2019.