Tanzania’s Nascent Fintech Sector is Poised for Growth

Tanzania’s Nascent Fintech Sector is Poised for Growth

In Tanzania, the fintech sector is still nascent with less than 50 companies, among which 68% in their early stages and 20% still at the pre-startup stage and not fully launched yet, a research found.

An assessment of the Tanzanian fintech landscape by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), in partnership with Tanzania's Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Commission and local innovation hub Sahara Ventures, identified just 34 active fintech startups in the country as of November 2020.

These fintech startups focus on six market segments - payments and remittances, lending and financing, insurance, savings, investments, and personal finance - and mainly offer business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions (91%), showcasing that the industry is still in the early stages of development with many gaps to fill.

Salum Awadh

Salum Awadh, a corporate advisor, investment manager and an entrepreneur, told the Fintech Times in November 2020 that Tanzania was

Advertisement

"still playing catch-up in the fintech space, despite seeing a few interesting businesses taking shape and beginning commercializing their business models.“

Mobile money and digital payments is the biggest vertical in Tanzania's fintech sector, he said, with perhaps the most notable startup in this space being Nala. Nala is a young fintech startup specializing in mobile payments. It provides