A peaceful revolution is taking place in Tanzania. For the first time people in rural as well as urban areas, women as well as men, the young and old, rich and poor - all can have access to financial services through their mobile phones. And they are – in their millions.
In 2009 when the last FinScope survey was conducted, just over 210,000 people, 1.1% of the adult population were using a mobile phone to make financial transactions. Today half the adults in the country – more than 12 million people – are doing so. This sudden access is providing the flexibility for people to make choices which were not available to them in the past: they can send and receive money instantly and safely. A growing number – 2.4 million – are paying their bills using mobile money, a figure which is predicted to rise substantially over the next few years as the range of contributing organisations expands. This new freedom means that people no longer have to waste time travelling to a bank or risk sending money to a relative on the bus. They have more time to concentrate on their business and other productive activities.
What do Tanzanians do with their hard-earned money? How do they save? Where do they choose to borrow from? Who do they turn to for credit? Do people in Kilimanjaro behave differently from those in Ruvuma?
The answers to all these questions can be found in the new FinScope Tanzania 2013 survey launched on 2nd April 2014, at the Bank of Tanzania. Measuring demand for and access to financial services of all kinds across every region of the Mainland and Zanzibar, the survey paints an intricate picture full of detail and some surprises.
In 2009 when the last FinScope survey was conducted, just over 210,000 people, 1.1% of the adult population were using a mobile phone to make financial transactions. Today half the adults in the country – more than 12 million people – are doing so. This sudden access is providing the flexibility for people to make choices which were not available to them in the past: they can send and receive money instantly and safely. A growing number – 2.4 million – are paying their bills using mobile money, a figure which is predicted to rise substantially over the next few years as the range of contributing organisations expands. This new freedom means that people no longer have to waste time travelling to a bank or risk sending money to a relative on the bus. They have more time to concentrate on their business and other productive activities.
Tanzanians are acquiring a more sophisticated approach to managing their finances: they may save in a bank or at home and send remittances via their mobiles, while getting credit from an informal group or savings and credit cooperative society. Young people are showing a particular talent for such flexibility, revealing a demand for more choice and variety of products and services. The new updated information contained in the FinScope data gives private sector organisations the ability to target new markets with products and services they can tailor to demand that FinScope helps them better understand.
FinScope also presents some interesting conundrums: why are there so many more people excluded from any kind of financial service on Zanzibar compared with the Mainland? And how come twice the number of people in Njombe use non-bank formal products (usually mobile money services) than their fellow citizens in Rukwa?
FinScope provides valuable evidence to shape the financial future. Government ministries use its data to develop their policies; banks and other financial institutions find evidence to develop new products and services; mobile network operators can track trends and design more and better ways to use mobile money facilities and offer them to more people. Research institutions, universities, development partners and civil society organisations will also find FinScope invaluable when developing their research agendas, policies and future areas of focus.
FinScope Tanzania 2013 is a unique resource which will give power to progress in Tanzania. It isfunded by the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT).
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