Vodacom Tanzania has launched a mobile version of money-transfer company Western Union to all their M-Pesa clients, which will allow them to send and receive money from anywhere in the world. At the moment, M-Pesa clients can only transact with 75 countries.

Vodacom Tanzania managing director Rene Meza (image: MyBroadband)

“We have introduced this service to our clients to give them access of sending and receiving funds even when they are abroad. If your mobile operator works with Western Union, using the mobile money transfer service could potentially be like having access to 200 countries and over 435,000 agent locations in your pocket,” said Vodacom Tanzania managing director Rene Meza.

Meza further added that the Western Union programme will make it even easier for users to send and receive money, as users don’t necessarily need a mobile phone to make transaction – the ways to send money include cash to mobile, mobile to cash and mobile to mobile.

Security is also of a high priority for Vodacom, as Meza added that users will be protected. “We want to guarantee our customers that even if the cash does not get into receivers’ hands you will get it back regardless the place. We do not want to know how much the client has in an account or any document in receiving funds.

Vodacom regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa Karen Jordan concluded with how easy it is to transact cash. “The clients can get cash from their relatives all over the world without any complicated approval. It is simple to any M-Pesa client to use as it has no limit of time in service so it is good for Tanzania’s economy.”

Charlie Fripp – Acting Online editor