DAR ES SALAAM: THE value of transactions processed through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) dropped by 0.77 per cent to 13.79tri/- last year from 13.87tri/- in 2023, due to the increasing adoption of alternative digital payment systems.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) National Payment System’s 2024 annual report, the volume of transactions processed through ATMs also fell by 5.63 per cent to 70.80 million in the period under review down from 75.01 million in 2023.
During the year under review, the number of ATMs increased by 9.74 per cent reaching 2,174, up from 1,981 in 2023. Geographically, the BoT report says 33.07 per cent of ATMs were located in Dar es Salaam, followed by Arusha (7.13 per cent), Mwanza (6.07 per cent) and Dodoma (5.57 per cent). Other regions accounted for less than 5 per cent of the total ATMs.
By 2024, a total of 12.72 million payment cards were issued to customers. Debit cards made up 97.05 per cent, followed by prepaid cards at 2.79 per cent and credit cards at 0.16 per cent.
Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay were the dominant card brands in Tanzania. During the year, the major card brands operating in Tanzania included VISA, MasterCard, UnionPay, American Express, Cirrus and Maestro.
Local brand cards saw a decline as banks shifted preference to international brands.
The number of local brand cards dropped by 27.92 per cent, from 2.40 million in 2023 to 1.73 million as at the end of last year. In contrast, international brand cards grew by 2.30 per cent rising to 10.67 million in 2024 from 10.43 million in 2023.
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The rise in international brand card adoption was driven by the demand for crossborder payments, the digitisation of merchant payments, increased e-commerce, and limitations of local brand cards and mobile money in cross-border transactions.
In 2024, the total volume of card transactions grew by 7.84 per cent, reaching 87.50 million, up from 81.12 million in 2023. The corresponding value of card transactions increased by 10.40 per cent to reach 16.12 tri/- from 14.60tri/-recorded in 2023.
Card usage is still low in Tanzania, as reflected by the number of active cards. During the year under review, the number of active cards those used for at least one transaction within 90 days stood at 2.5 million, or 19.48 per cent reflecting low usage.
The payment system providers cited high transaction fees as a major barrier to card usage. Moreover, smartphone owners funded their prepaid virtual cards through mobile wallets for card payments. M-Pesa Limited, Tigo Pesa and Airtel Money Tanzania Limited offered virtual card services in 2024.
The number of virtual cards registered reached 820,832, marking a 60.37 per cent increase from 511,826 in 2023.
In the current year, virtual cards processed 4.51 million, in which TZS denominated transactions were valued at 220.15bn/- while the number of USD denominated transactions was 0.61 million worth 187.33m/-.
