Cruise Business reports that the Tanzania ferry operator Azam will be implementing mobile payments in the coming weeks, the system will be implemented by a developer Carus. This is an exciting development as it validates the approach that many travel service operators in East Africa going online and streamlining their booking operation- our charter airline partner, Coastal Aviation already accepts mobile banking payment via M-Pesa, although it is reluctant to promote it so much since they will be favoring the one cell carrier Vodacom. More importantly, this news show that mobile banking has become mainstream enough in Tanzania, which is lagging Kenya where some half of all adults use mobile banking and 25% of the country’s GDP now flows though mobile banking services such as M-Pesa.

Yellow Masai soon after our launch will implement mobile payments across the entire East Africa region as a checkout solution on the booking website to cover all types of service providers inc. ferries, flights, tours- we believe having a central place where travelers can compare the options to travel across ferry, flight services will allow us to reach many more customers that would not otherwise book on Azam’s website- we have also being paying great attention to the user experience of our website to make it as seamless as possible.