Etisalat has launched the first mobile payment system based on near field communications (NFC) technology in Tanzania through its Zantel subsidiary, the Abu Dhabi-based company said today.

The new service is being dubbed ‘Touch and Go” and provides an extra layer to Zantel’s existing zPesa mobile financial service.

“Touch and Go offers a convenient, secure, easy to use and versatile service that anyone can access,” said Essa Al Haddad, Etisalat group chief marketing officer. “The secret for the success of this service is the simplicity of the process. A customer can use ‘Touch and Go’ with merchants to purchase goods, services, tickets or even mobile credit top-ups without needing to type any numbers or complicated commands.”

Etisalat noted that operators in African countries such as Tanzania benefit from being able to leapfrog legacy systems and can directly adopt NFC for their customers.

The operator added that the new service also addresses issues of consumer literacy and education, which represent a major challenge for the take-up of new services especially in the rural communities.

Etisalat worked with Oberthur Technologies and MasterCard on the NFC, and eventually plans to roll out mobile financial services and NFC technology across its 18 markets in the Middle East, African and Asia.