Vodacom joined Tigo, Airtel and Zantel in a pioneering interoperability scheme for mobile money in Tanzania.

In 2014, Tigo, Airtel and Zantel agreed to enable their customers to send and receive money across their networks. After announcing it would join last year, Vodacom has now implemented the scheme.

Tanzania becomes Africa’s first country with full interoperability for P2P money transfers, according to a statement issued by three of the operators.

Interoperability means more traffic and hence revenue, at least that’s the argument of Tigo, Airtel and Zantel, which have seen off-network transactions grow 3.5 times since 2014.

Tanzania, like neighbouring Kenya, is a case study for mobile money with high usage levels. There are more than 16 million mobile financial users in Tanzania.