VIDEO INTERVIEW: Diego Gutierrez, CEO of Tigo Tanzania, believes the country is the most innovative in the world for mobile money.

In an interview with Mobile World Live, Gutierrez listed a number of factors, including an unbanked population as well as a favourable regulatory environment and competition, as having driven the country’s adoption of mobile money services.

The country recently became the first in Africa to offer interoperable mobile money services across all three major networks.

Tanzania’s mobile money market is certainly growing fast. In its Q2 results, Tigo parent Millicom reported a 21 per cent increase in mobile money customers year-on-year for its operations in the African country.

And local rivals, including Vodacom, are pushing hard too, making for a vibrant market. And countries with higher penetrations tend to foster new ideas for services.

Like its rivals, Tigo is looking to go beyond money transfer to a more sophisticated range of financial services, including savings and loans. However, Tanzania is not alone in seeing such a progression. Kenya, led by Safaricom’s M-Pesa, is on a similar journey.

The Tigo Tanzania chief added that the operator’s individual strengths include its brand, security and user friendliness.

Watch the full interview here.