Central Bank sets 80 pc financial inclusion target

The Monetary Statement of the first half of the 2015/16 fiscal year also shows that BoT is targeting to have at least 70 per cent of the population living within five kilometres of a financial access point by 2017.

The new development follows the country’s outstanding performance in the usage of formal financial services among the unbanked population that surpassed its initial target by 50 per cent of adult population in 2014.

According to the BoT report, the increase in access and usage of formal financial services has been driven mostly by innovation and technology in the financial sector, particularly the use of mobile phones for accessing financial services.

The digital technology has made Tanzania one of the global hot spots of innovative financial services. By the end of December 2015, the number of registered active users of mobile phone financial services was 19 million.

Similarly, the other driving force was the enhancement of legal and regulatory framework for the National Payment Systems achieved with the National Payment Systems Act 2015 that became operational in October 2015.

Subsequently, two regulations were operationalised, namely, the Licensing and Approval Regulations 2015 and the Electronic Money Issuance Regulations 2015. Furthermore, the Bank has embarked on awareness initiatives to ensure that the stakeholders are complying with the new requirements by the end of April 2016.

The other major development reached was for the Bank embarking on modernization initiatives of High Value Payment Systems (TISS) and improvements on retail payment infrastructures and services.

The Bank is also in the process of operationalizing new NPS regulatory framework following the enactment of the NPS Act 2015 and subsequent Regulations on Electronic Money Issuance regulations (2015) and NPS Licensing and Approval regulations (2015).

SOURCE: DAILY NEWS

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