Vodacom Tanzania has claimed to launch Africa’s first mobile money-native contactless payment feature, following a collaboration with Visa and Paymentology to upgrade its M-Pesa app. M-Pesa customers using Android devices can access the tap-to-pay feature via the M-Pesa super app, enabling contactless payments at any Visa-enabled point-of-sale terminal both locally and internationally. Vodacom Tanzania M-Pesa director Epimack Mbeteni said the launch was the result of close collaboration between Vodacom, M-Pesa Africa, Visa and Paymentology, aimed at simplifying and expanding access to digital payments. The tap-to-pay capability is enabled by Paymentology’s cloud-based processing infrastructure, allowing secure and tokenised transactions without the need for a physical card. Meagan Rabe, vice president of merchant services, acquiring and fintech for Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa, said the partnership demonstrates how collaboration across the payments ecosystem can help drive the adoption of contactless payments for everyday transactions.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 17, 2026 16:51 UTC