Tanzania’s Digital Payments Hit $11.6B as Real-Time Use Grows

The latest financial stability report from the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) shows that the value of Tanzania’s real-time digital payments increased value which is more than doubled in 2024, with the country’s national switch processing TSh29.9 trillion (about $11.6 billion) in transactions by December, up from TSh12.5 trillion ($4.9 billion) the year before.

In order to address the fragmentation in Tanzania’s payments system, the Tanzania Instant Payment System (TIPS), which was introduced in 2020, enables users to transfer money immediately between banks, mobile money wallets, and other licensed financial institutions. After the number of participating institutions increased to 46, the system processed 454 million transactions in 2024, almost twice as many as the 236 million recorded in 2023.

“With its ability to facilitate instant payments and promote financial inclusion, especially among underserved communities, the system has emerged as a key pillar in Tanzania’s digital financial infrastructure,” the BoT stated in the report.

Tanzania has chosen a more centralised approach, putting interoperability at the centre of its digital payments policy, in contrast to Kenya’s market-led model, where Safaricom’s M-Pesa controls the mobile money industry. TIPS is a centralised clearing mechanism supported by the central bank.

In contrast, Kenya’s mobile money ecosystem is still much bigger. Kenya had KES 8.7 trillion ($67.3 billion) in mobile money transactions in 2024, which is more than half of the nation’s GDP. 

In order to address ongoing access gaps in rural areas, Tanzania has also improved its Financial Services Registry (FSR) by adding geographic mapping capabilities to measure the spread of financial services.

As of December 2024, the nation had more than 52,000 financial access points, such as ATMs, bank branches, and mobile money agents, according to the BoT, although coverage is still not uniform.

In contrast to urban regions like at the city’s capital, Dar es Salaam, where the ratio surpasses 15 per 10,000, access points in certain rural districts continue to fall short of the national average of 4.8 per 10,000 adults. The GIS-enabled registry is expected to visualise these inequalities and identify underserved areas for expansion and investment, according to the agency.

In comparison, statistics from the Central Bank of Kenya shows that in 2024, there were over 320,000 mobile money agents nationally in Kenya, where mobile money penetration is far higher. This translates to an average of 11 access points per 10,000 adults.

We are able to understand that Tanzania once made a conscious policy change to increase access to digital finance across dispersed financial services, as seen by its intention to construct and redesign a centralised, interoperable real-time payment system. Africa’s mobile money market which is dominated by Kenya’s M-Pesa-driven ecosystem, however Tanzania’s TIPS provides an alternative approach that views interoperability as essential rather than optional. This strategy can be seen to be used in conjunction with infrastructure mapping investments. Tanzania now has approximately 52,000 financial access points, however many rural regions still fall below the national average of 4.8 per 10,000 adults. The Bank of Tanzania is improving its Financial Services Registry with GIS tools to pinpoint underserved areas and direct investments in order to bridge this gap.

Tanzania’s model may be more replicable in other African markets seeking to integrate banking, mobile money, and fintech under a shared infrastructure, but Kenya continues to lead in agent penetration with over 320,000 mobile money agents and an average of 11 access points per 10,000 adults. The strategy emphasises a shift from pure transaction volume growth towards broader inclusion metrics.