CEO Weekends: Kenya’s Tangaza Pesa Wants To Use Thin SIM Cards

Kenya’s mobile money service provider Tangaza Pesa is planning to introduce the thin SIM card even though the Equity bank is facing major challenges over the project. The reason behind this decision, the mobile money platform says, is the fact that its target market do  ot want to buy new phones.

“This leaves us with no option but to use thin SIM card, which sits on a parent SIM,” Tangaza Pesa chief executive Oscar Ikinu said.

Not worring about the state at which Equity bank is in, Tangaza  says that the law does not deny us access to the thin SIM card service.

Tangaza was licensed in May by the Communications Authority of Kenya to operate as MVNO on Airtel’s network alongside Equity’s Finserve and Zioncell.

It has begun its roll-out by recruiting money transfer agents countrywide. It has also been licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to provide cashless fare services to consumers.

On Monday, the Communication Authority and CBK gave the nod to Equity Bank to roll out mobile money services using the thin-SIM card technology on a one-year pilot basis.

During the period, no other operator will be allowed to use the technology to enable the regulator to study the technology’s security features.

This means that Tangaza Pesa will have to cool its heels for a year before it rolls out its thin SIM services. The Communications Authority has demanded that Equity Bank signs that it will compensate the regulator for any liabilities arising from fraudulent use of the thin SIM cards.

“This is important to ascertain that they are not hiding anything and they have taken security measures against any eventualities of fraud,” Communications Authority director-general Francis Wangusi told the Nation by phone.