Tanzania’s central bank has scraped card payments fees and warns merchants against adding extra charges on these transactions.
The country’s apex bank and regulator said transactions from debit and credit cards at various point of sales (POS) terminals are free of charge.
“One of the key measures taken is ensuring that payments made using debit, credit or prepaid cards at merchant Point of Sale (POS) terminals are completely free of charge for consumers,” said Mr Emmanuel Tutuba, the governor of the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) in a statement dated Monday, December 23rd.
The governor emphasised the bank’s commitment to promote the adoption and usage of digital payments.Mr Tutuba added, “their adoption contributes to building a cash-lite economy while offering the benefits of enhanced security, transparency and ease of use.”
Card payments have not been widely used in the nation compared to mobile money.Official data from the communications regulator, Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), most Tanzanians use mobile money, with latest statistics showing some 55.8 million mobile money accounts, doubling from 25.8 million in 2019.
This implies that eight out of ten Tanzanians have access to mobile money, in a country of about 68 million people.BoT urges Tanzanians to adopt digital payments for the expansion of the financial sector and the economy.
It adds that digital payments are a safe, convenient and cost-effective method for conducting transactions.”The Bank hereby reminds the public that merchants are strictly prohibited from imposing any additional fees or surcharges on card transactions,” added Mr Tutuba.
