Senior Manager for E-Banking, Mr. Cyprian Massawe joined by his colleague Mr. Willington Munyaga – Head of ICT during a demo of the product to the journalists at Bank of Africa Tanzania HQ in Dar es Salaam.
BANK OF AFRICA TANZANIA is constantly finding new ways of delighting customers through our bold new innovative strategies as the high population density of mobile phones in Tanzania is a future promising the success of a technology driven thrust in mobile banking. BANK OF AFRICA TANZANIA today announces the new introduction of mobile banking dubbed B-Mobile which will help the Tanzanian population access banking on their mobile phones.
The introduction of B-Mobile by BANK OF AFRICA TANZANIA’s new mobile banking service makes banking fast, simple, convenient and available saving our customers precious time and gives you the ability to “BE MOBILE” hence banking on the go. With over 28 Million subscribers in Tanzania using the mobile phone; BANK OF AFRICA TANZANIA’s B-Mobile is coming in the market to carter for these target groups ever-changing needs so as to enrich the user experience of customers.
“To access the service, subscribers need to dial *150*13# to try out these services on their phone.” said Mr. Willington Munyaga – Head of ICT, BANK OF AFRICA TANZANIA. In addition, “This mobile platform enables you to perform multiple transactions at any time, wherever you are from your mobile phone. The transactions vary from: balance enquiry, checking ones transaction details, paying utility bills (e.g. Luku, DSTV, Dawasco, Star Times), topping-up mobile phone airtime on any network, request bank statements, get the latest FX rates, transfer money between your BANK OF AFRICA accounts as well as mobile transaction through Airtel money and M-PESA.”
The bank also has also enabled the service to be accessible on internet enabled phones or smart phones dubbed “BWEB Smart” which can be accessed through the portal www.bwebsmart.com. Customers will be able to make banking transactions from their smart phones and this will add on the convenience of the service as it’s not limited to network coverage that the customer is subscribed to. He further advices that the customer is required to only have internet connection on his smart phone and can be able to access the service. This will go a long way in enabling our customer’s access banking service even when they are out of the country and there are not subscribed to any roaming service.
In addition, the bank will also be introducing its SMS alert service which is in response to increasing fraud transactions being reported within the banking sector. With this service, its customers will be able to receive SMS alerts for a select debit/credit transaction that occur in their account. The banks senior manager for E-Banking, Mr. Cyprian Massawe further reiterated that customers will be given specific numbers to be able to call in and report any incidences that occur on their transactions and they are not familiar with. This will enable the bank to easily block the customer’s account in case of any fraudulent transactions. Moreover, the service will thus keep the customer updated on his account balances and movements on a real time basis.
In a statement by Mr. John Mngodo – Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communication, Science and Technology said, “In Tanzania, mobile operators in partnership with banks are increasing their developments on mobile data and commerce services taking shape in the country to date. The government has currently allocated TZS 17.5 Billion towards improving rural telecom infrastructure that is expected to boost update of mobile services to the citizens and in extension mobile banking services. B-Mobile is surely a well packaged product that will carter for this market of consumers. We as a ministry are therefore encouraged by the usage of technology by financial institions such as BANK OF AFRICA – TANZANIA that seek to introduce into the market their mobile banking solutions.”
Moving forward, the bank will be introducing new applications that will seek to enhance our mobile banking solutions not only involving the retail segment but also tapping into the corporate banking segments. These solutions not only offer convinience to the end user but also encourage the under banked and unbanked to be able to access banking services from their areas of comfort. We believe these solutions will mark milestones in our delivery channels as a bank. We welcome you all to try and utilize our new mobile banking service.
