Maxcom eyes foreign markets as govt rolls out gateway

Dar es Salaam. After the government rolled out its own e-Payment Gateway (GePG), Maxcom Africa Plc has gone back to the drawing board, with its eyes now set on markets beyond Tanzania.

The Tanzanian firm strives to involve itself in e-ticketing intelligent transport systems, e-health, banking solutions as well as expanding technology via systems development and implementation in Tanzania, the company’s spokesman Deogratius Lazari told BusinessWeek.

Maxcom Africa Plc operates in Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Zambia.

There were fears that the government move could paralyse the company’s operations locally.

According to Mr Lazari, the government electronic payment gateway was introduced to support e-payment processing by ensuring transparency and increasing collection channels, through the integration of aggregators, mobile operators and banks.

Being one of the leading payment aggregators in the region with over 16,000 agents in Tanzania, he noted, Maxcom Africa was still stable

Even after the introduction of GePG, Maxcom Africa still facilitates bill payments for almost all government institutions, totalling 37.

These include the Tanzania Police Force, Dodoma Urban Water, Immigration, Tanesco, Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries RITA, Magomeni Health Centre, Marine Services Company, Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperative and Brela.

Others are the Tanzania Forest Services Agency, Tanzania Tree Seed Agency, Muhimbili University, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Land, University Computing Centre, High Education Students Loan Board, Tanzania Revenue Authority, Open University of Tanzania, Institute of Finance Management, Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission, Tanzania Bureau of Standards and Tanzania Fertiliser Regulatory Authority.

Maxcom Africa also facilitates payments for the Mwanza Urban Water, Sumatra, the Judiciary, Arusha Technical College, Tanga Urban Water, Iringa Urban Water, PPRA, Bakita, Osha, Labour Chief Inspectorate Unit and Private Hospitals Advisory Board.

Maxmalipo, as a payment aggregator, began its operations in Africa in 2010 with the ambition of changing people’s lives through introducing the e-payment ecosystem.

“Our vision was to transform the economy from cash-based to cashless one,” he said.

Maxcom’s target by 2010 was to build a robust electronic payment system and influence changes in policies as to allow electronic payments in public and private sectors.

Mr Lazari noted that it had not been easy. The company started with the introduction of point of sale devices run on GSM with more functionalities.

The next challenge was introducing devices among targeted businesses who would use them to vend various services, such as selling airtime and paying for electricity. Maxmalipo then presented proof of concept papers to various government institutions, such as TRA, Tanesco and water authorities.

“It was a success, and in 2010 we began by vending Luku via agents, then our business went further by enhancing revenue collection at TRA.'

Source: The Citizen

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