Standards on digital financial services underway as ITU register 62m accounts

THE International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is crafting international standards on digital financial inclusion as Tanzania financial service provider announced it had registered over 62 million accounts in the country.

The standards seeks to tighten security, improve network quality as well as userfriendly terms and condition on digital access to and use of formal financial services by excluded and underserved populations Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Governor Prof Benno Ndulu said at the Sixth Meeting of the ITU Focus Group on Digital Financial Inclusion held in Dar es Salaam the country had a booming number of active accounts standing at 21.9 million as of July this year.

Tanzania has already become first, globally, to achieve wallet to wallet interoperability in digital financial service -- allowing one user to send or receive money from another mobile operator.

“From our regulatory point of view, we are seeing increased number of transactions since then with reduced costs as a result of sharing infrastructure in the country,” Prof Ndulu told the conference yesterday.

According to the governor, the achievement were driven by adaptation and application of mobile money as a platform for delivery of financial services which account by more than half of increased usage of formal non-banking financial services.

The central bank and financial regulator inked a MoU with the Tanzania Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TCRA) to discharge its obligations the plan which had helped embrace digital financial services.

ITU Programme Coordinator, Mr Venkatesen Mauree, explained that the meeting which involved policy makers, ITU member states, regulators and payment option providers were working for a collective solution regarding digital financial inclusion challenges.

He said the aim is to develop an international standard that can help guide users and providers on security issues, quality and terms. “There are time a client fails to get service despite that has paid.

under technical issues or network failure the payment may arrive late or bounce all this are gaps that were working on,” He said noting there already specifications developed and according to him, the standards are expected to be ready by next year.

He lauded Tanzania for becoming a first country in the globe to have adopted interoperability. “Digital financial service has led to strong economic growth and we hope Tanzania can benefit from this transformation.”

But Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Senior Program Officer Mr Sacha Polverini who is responsible for financial services for the poor said relationship between regulators BoT and TCRA must be strengthened.