In a first ever move in the mobile money history, Millicom-owned Tigo has said it will give its regular quarterly payments worth 3bn/- (US $ 1.8 million) to Tigo Pesa users, just three months after it paid TZS 14.25 billion (US $ 8.64 million) accumulated in the Tigo Pesa Trust Account to its custsomers, becoming the first mobile money service in the world to pay profit to its 3.6 million customers.
In a statement, Tigo General Manager Diego Gutierrez said “This second round of profit disbursement shows the company’s continued commitment to benefit and improve the lives of Tanzanians. The payment goes to all Tigo Pesa users including super agents, retail agents and individual users of the service.”
“The first payment was bigger due to the fact that the profit had been accumulated over a period of three and a half years. This second payment is the profit accumulated from funds held in trust in commercial banks for three months in the quarter July to September 2014,” the General Manager said.
Mr Gutierrez explained that, as before, the average return to a customer will vary based on their average daily balance in their Tigo Pesa e-wallet. This applies to super-agents, retail agents and individual customers.
The next installment for the quarter of October to December 2014 will be paid out in February 2015.