Dar es Salaam, 29th November 2018; Customers of Tanzania’s leading digital lifestyle company Tigo can now pay their bills using the Government’s Electronic Payment Gateway (GEPG) QR code, after Tigo added Government payment to its Tigo Pesa App.
Speaking at Tigo’s official launch of the GePG in Dar es Salaam, Bernard Mabagala – Senior ICT Officer at the Ministry of Finance and Planning noted that Government’s innovation and efforts of introducing a state of art Government electronic Payment Gateway (GePG) has eased the process of acquiring bills and making payments for citizens. It has also resulted in benefits such as proper record keeping, timely reporting, reducing leakages and fraud as well as increasing revenues to the government entities.
Through GePG, the Government has widened its offering of services to regular citizens and opened up business activities to payment service providers like Tigo. Citizens can obtain bills physically from public institutions or electronically through various online portals; and pay for the valid bills at their convenience time and place; through mobile money, bank channels and / or e-commerce payments
“Supporting the Government plans to increase Financial Inclusion in Tanzania has been always one of our strategic objectives” highlighted Hussein Sayed, the Chief Officer of Mobile Financial Services in Tigo.
‘More than 7 million customers using our Tigo Pesa services now have more options to make quick, easy and secure payments to over 300 civil ministries, government agencies and other public utilities through Tigo Pesa USSD, Tigo Pesa App or QR code,” Tigo’s Head of Business to Government, Ally Maswanya added.
Some of the Public Institutions to which bill payments can now be made via Tigo Pesa include Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), TANESCO, Local Government Authorities (LGAs), Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA), Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA), Ministry of Lands Housing and Human Settlement Development (MLHHSD), Tanzania Forest Reserve (TFS), Ministry of Tourism, Dar es Salaam Water and Sewage Authority (DAWASA), Dodoma Urban Water and Sewage Authority (DUWASA), Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH), Higher Education Student’s Loans Board (HESLB), Immigration (e-VISA, e-Passport, e-Permit) and 300+ institutions.
In order to make the payments via the Tigo Pesa App and QR code, Tigo customers only need to download and open the Tigo Pesa App, scan the relevant QR code and enter their secret PIN number to complete the transaction.
To complete payments using the using Tigo’s USSD menu, customers need to;
1) Dial the Tigo Pesa USSD code *150*01# and select Pay Bills
2) Select option number 5 (Government payments)
3) Enter the control number (12 digits) of the particular utility to receive the payments
4) Enter the amount payable
5) Enter customers’ PIN to authorise payment.
Alternatively, customers can use Tigo Pesa Application, which offers a world-class experience and easy access to financial payments
After completing the payments, Tigo customers will receive an electronic SMS receipt confirming the transaction. The e-receipt is acceptable as proof of the payment and eases traceability of the transactions because it is easy to save, retrieve and trace as opposed to physical receipts that could easily get lost or damaged.