Vodacom Tanzania launches M-Pesa tap-to-pay in Africa first

Details: Manny Pham; Category: Mobile Finance; 17 March 2026; 7978 views

Vodacom Tanzania has claimed to launch Africa’s first mobile money-native contactless payment feature, following a collaboration with Visa and Paymentology to upgrade its M-Pesa app.

M-Pesa customers using Android devices can access the tap-to-pay feature via the M-Pesa super app, enabling contactless payments at any Visa-enabled point-of-sale terminal both locally and internationally.

Vodacom Tanzania M-Pesa director Epimack Mbeteni said the launch was the result of close collaboration between Vodacom, M-Pesa Africa, Visa and Paymentology, aimed at simplifying and expanding access to digital payments.

The operator said Tanzania was selected for the rollout due to the rapid growth of mobile money, which is becoming increasingly central to the country’s economy. According to Vodacom, the number of mobile money accounts reached 76.5 million in December 2025, up 21% from 63.2 million in 2024, in a country with a population of just over 70 million.

The tap-to-pay capability is enabled by Paymentology’s cloud-based processing infrastructure, allowing secure and tokenised transactions without the need for a physical card.

Meagan Rabe, vice president of merchant services, acquiring and fintech for Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa, said the partnership demonstrates how collaboration across the payments ecosystem can help drive the adoption of contactless payments for everyday transactions.