The World Bank praised the impact of mobile money in Tanzania, highlighting the service had changed the life of millions of people in the country.

Its latest report, The Tanzania Economic Update, revealed the number of accounts in the country reached 53.3 million by the end of February 2016, with 17.6 million active users conducting at least one transaction in the previous 30 days.

Services were introduced by mobile operators during 2008 and by the end of that year services had attracted 200,000 users.

The World Bank estimated mobile money services now have a reach covering two thirds of the country’s adult population, and called for a concerted effort to reach the remainder.

World Bank country director for Tanzania, Somalia, Burundi and Malawi, Bella Bird (pictured) said: “The mobile money revolution has made a tremendous impact on the lives of millions of people who can now send and receive money and thus save at low cost. With more effort, the remaining one-third of Tanzanians could also have access.”

According to the latest GSMA Intelligence statistics for Tanzania, by the end of Q1 2016 there were four competing mobile money services available in the country.

Vodacom’s m-Pesa led the market with a 42 per cent share, followed by Tigo Pesa with 31 per cent, Airtel Money on 24 per cent and new entrant Zantel Ezy Pesa with three per cent.