Vodacom Tanzania is set to undertake a significant $28 million migration of its flagship M-Pesa service from the legacy G2 infrastructure to a next-generation fintech platform, in a proactive move to future-proof the country’s leading mobile money system.
Athumani Mlinga, IT and Billing Director at Vodacom Tanzania PLC, who oversees the company’s technology infrastructure, including M-Pesa, emphasised that the decision was driven by strategic foresight rather than system failure.
“There is a well-known dilemma in technology leadership: do you wait for a system to fail before you replace it, or do you invest in modernisation while everything still works?” said Mlinga. “When the system processes billions of financial transactions each year for millions of Tanzanians, there is only one responsible answer.”
The upgrade, scheduled to begin next month, represents one of the most consequential fintech infrastructure investments in Tanzania’s history. Mlinga noted that the move is essential as M-Pesa has evolved from a simple transfer service into a comprehensive financial ecosystem supporting payments, savings, credit, and enterprise solutions.
Data underscores the urgency of the investment. Between 2021 and 2025, active mobile money accounts in Tanzania more than doubled from 35.3 million to 76.5 million, while annual transaction volumes rose from 3.75 billion to 6.31 billion. With Tanzania’s population at 71 million and growing at nearly 3% annually, coupled with projected GDP growth of 6.3% for 2026, smartphone penetration at 41%, and 5G coverage reaching 30% of the population, the digital economy is expanding at an extraordinary pace.
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A 2025 GeoPoll survey further revealed that 94% of respondents use mobile money, with more than 60% using it daily — reinforcing M-Pesa’s central role in everyday financial transactions.
Mlinga explained that while the legacy G2 platform served the company well during earlier stages of growth, it cannot sustainably handle the increasing volume, velocity, and complexity of transactions in Tanzania’s fast-digitising economy.
The new platform promises three major improvements: significantly higher capacity to process thousands of transactions per second, enhanced resilience through an active-active architecture that minimises downtime, and greater agility to accelerate product development and market responsiveness. It will also feature strengthened security measures to protect customer data and transactions amid rising digital fraud threats.
“Technology infrastructure decisions are, at their core, customer decisions,” Mlinga stated. The upgrade will deliver greater reliability for small traders receiving payments, smoother high-volume processing for agents, and improved integration for enterprise partners.
He added that the investment aligns with Tanzania’s long-term ambitions, including the government’s Vision 2050 framework, which envisions a trillion-dollar economy supported by robust digital financial infrastructure.
Mlinga concluded that Vodacom is not rebuilding M-Pesa’s engine because it has broken down, but because Tanzania’s growing population and ambitious economy deserve infrastructure that matches their scale and potential.
“This is what customer centricity looks like when it is measured in investment,” he said.
