African payments company, Cellulant gets licence to operate in Tanzania

African payments company, Cellulant has received approval from the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) to operate as a Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) in the country.

According to the regulator, it issued the approval in principle to Cellulant because the company satisfied all the necessary requirements.

This approval makes the payment company one of the top Payment Solutions Service Providers (PSSP) endorsed by the BOT to provide digital payments solutions across the nation.

Speaking on the approval, the recently appointed Country Manager for Cellulant Tanzania, Edwin Kiiru expressed that affirmation from the regulatory body will enable the company to extend its payment solutions across all spectrums of Tanzania’s payments ecosystem.

“This approval sets Cellulant into a select group of few payment aggregators that operate as PSSPs in Tanzania and will help add millions of economically active but financially excluded Tanzanians into the digital payment ecosystem.”

Edwin Kiiru, Country Manager for Cellulant Tanzania

Over 220 million consumers

Founded in 2002, Cellulant initially launched as a music streaming company that helps musicians earn a share of the money paid by fans to download their songs.

The company later pivoted to digital payments, running an ecosystem of consumers, retailers, merchants, banks, mobile network operators, governments, and international development partners.

Today, it hosts 154 payment options across 34 countries. It is also connected to 220 million consumers on a single inclusive network allowing for interoperability that has eluded numerous players in the payments space.

In Tanzania, Cellulant provides a single digital payments platform – named Tingg- addressing the complex transactional needs of businesses.

Tingg makes it easy to collect and make payments across multiple payment methods in different currencies, with the best customer experience for any business looking to digitise their payments.

With the new approval, Cellulant will be able to connect to banks, online merchants, payment processors, merchants, state governments, and consumers to meet their digital payment needs.

According to Edwin, the company’s goal is to bring to Tanzania the same top-level performance and seamless payments solutions that have made Tingg, Africa’s most preferred payments platform.