Tigo, Airtel and Zantel team up over mobile money payments

Tigo, Airtel and Zantel have signed a pioneering agreement to allow customers of Tigo, Airtel and Zantel in Tanzania to send money to each other whether using Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money or EzyPesa on their mobile handsets. It is expected that the service will start by the end of June.

This is the first agreement in Africa to adopt such “interoperability”, whereby mobile network operators allows their customer to send and receive money across the network and the e-money goes direct to the respective customer e-wallet account.

In the early years of the mobile industry, such agreements were common for both voice calls and SMS text messaging. With this agreement, customers of the three telecommunications company would be able to send money by mobile to each other directly, according to a statement issued by the companies.

Diego Gutierrez, Tigo’s General Manager for Tanzania, commented, “We are delighted to work with Airtel and Zantel to extend the mobile money universe in Tanzania. With even more transactions possible, our customers’ money is made even more safe and secure with this technology. Just as we cooperate with our competitors on voice calls and text to help our customers, so we hope to be able to do the same with mobile money and help make Tanzania a global pioneer in digital financial inclusion.”

The joint press statement also listed other benefits customers of the three companies would enjoy as including the ability to send money at more affordable rates and in a simplified way which does not require use of PIN codes when making withdrawals as had been the practice before signing of the agreement.