Regulation of Mobile Money Services in Tanzania

. The convergence of telecommunication services and financial services in Tanzania that gave birth to M-Money services has been celebrated by people of all walks of life. The services have bridged the gap to millions of people who could not access traditional banking services. As a result of these innovations people can now pay bills, buy airtime, send and receive money using their mobile phones. There are sound reasons to believe that M-Money services have provided a good platform for banking services for people at the bottom of pyramid in Tanzania, however, it has been both a blessing and disguise. The M- Money services have brought in place various legal and regulatory challenges and complicated the traditional role of the telecommunication regulator and financial regulator in the business and raised significant questions regarding their new roles. The novelty and dynamism in the services could have been addressed with clear and comprehensive legal framework, however, the government decided to use the soft approach in order to attract financial inclusion and innovations. The lenience in the regulation has raised legal challenges in money laundering, consumer protection, data protection, online contract, interoperability, deposit insurance and e-taxation. The thesis has evaluated the contribution of international standard setting bodies and model laws in the making of legal framework that addresses the challenges of M-Money services. However, the focuses of such bodies and model laws have been to the financial transaction conducted by conventional banks. It is from this argument that this thesis examines the legal implications, risks and security issues brought by M-Money services.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

The Open University of Tanzania

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Ally, Abdallah

• 340 Law

Language dc:language

en