Comparative Analysis of Strengths and Challenges of SACCOS, VICOBA, NGO MFIs and Mobile Money Transactions in Tanzania

The History of financial services in Tanzania shows that there were poor financial services before and soon after the independence. The financial services improved slowly after the liberalization of financial services in the 1990s. This paper uses the empirical literature to compare the current financial services providers serving the middle and lower income groups in Tanzania. The analysis of findings indicates that cooperative financial institutions (VICOBA and SACCOS) and mobile money services serve the majority of Tanzanians both in rural and urban areas. The paper recommends that policymakers should favor the semi-formal MFIs to enable them to serve the majority of Tanzanians and the security of mobile monetary transactions should be strengthened since is the most reliable monetary services used by all categories of Tanzanians throughout the country.