Tanzania Tops Africa in Financial Inclusion Drive
A recent survey has revealed that Tanzania has been placed at the top of the rankings among East African and Sub-Saharan African nations for enabling financial inclusion. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Microscope 2016 survey has ranked Tanzania as 9th out of 55 countries worldwide according to the 12 indicators that were used for identifying global progress and the challenges that face financial inclusion, recognizing Tanzania’s ongoing progress in the achievement of its goals and the improvement in the country’s regulatory environment. These developments include the NPSA (the National Payment Systems Act) and the EMR (Electronic Money Regulations) which extend protection for financial consumers and expand the number of institutions covered by the disclosure policies of the Bank of Tanzania. The reports also notes other activities which are currently in progress, such as the Microfinance Act which is in the draft stages and the increase in the number of insurance market players in an effort to increase service coverage to the public. This is the third consecutive year during which Tanzania has held first place for financial inclusion within Sub-Saharan Africa thanks to the many measures which have been implemented to improve affordability, access and use of financial services among the people. This is also the 2nd time in the last 3 months that Tanzania has received international recognition for the measures that it is taking to improve financial inclusion, having won two awards in September for its outstanding work in this area.
