Tigo Tanzania has launched a new mobile money service that allows its customers to send and receive money on their mobile wallets from M-Pesa in Kenya, MTN in Uganda, Airtel and MTN in Rwanda.

The company says its customers are now connected to all major mobile money services across East Africa and the rollout is expected to grow transactions for cross-border remittance users.

Tigo Tanzania’s Acting CEO for Mobile Financial Services Angelica Pesha said: ”This new service between the four countries further cements how Tigo adapts to its customers’ needs with digital solutions and it also means that the benefits of mobile money can be extended to cross-border trade, allowing businesses and families to transfer money quickly and securely in East Africa… we believe this venture will increase the number of transactions for cross-border remittance users.”

Pesha added: “To send money to the different services, Tigo Pesa customers can dial *150*01# on their mobile phones, select send money, send out of the country,select either Kenya,Uganda or Rwanda.”

MTN Uganda provides a range of financial services via its MoMoPay offering.

Stephen Mutana, MTN Uganda General Manager Mobile Financial Services, added: “As mobile money is becoming borderless, this partnership with Tigo Tanzania is part of our commitment to offer our customers within the East African Community; an option to transfer funds to their friends, families and business partners using their Airtel Money Wallets.”

Jidia Gasana from Airtel Rwanda said receiving money from Tigo Tanzania is free and to send money to Tigo Tanzania, Airtel Money customer must dial *500*1*3# and follow the prompts.

“This partnership between Safaricom, MTN, Airtel and Tigo Tanzania will enable us meet the growing demand for cross border transactions within East Africa,” said Gasana.

To send money to the different services, M-Pesa customers can dial *840# on their mobile phones or through mySafaricom App by selecting the “M-PESA Global” option under “M-PESA” then selecting “Send”.

In early April 2020 the Centre for Global Deployment (CGD) released details of a report which found that just 56% of citizens across 99 developing countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa, have access to a phone, a bank account and an ID card.

Anit Mukherjee from the CGD and a co-author of the report, said in Kenya, 82.9% of the population are financially included, while other countries including Rwanda, Uganda and Nigeria follow Kenya closely.