How mobile money became East Africa’s operating system
Long before neobanks and super apps, a text message based wallet quietly rewired how tens of millions of people pay, save and get paid. Here is how the model works, why it still wins, and what comes next.
Nijuze Staff · 12 Sept 2026 · 2 min read
Ask almost anyone in Dar es Salaam how they paid for lunch, a bus fare or their electricity this week and the answer is rarely cash or card. It is a wallet tied to a phone number. Mobile money is so embedded in daily life that it has stopped being a product and become infrastructure, the layer everything else is built on.
Why it worked here first
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Nijuze Staff
Writes for Nijuze. Published 12 Sept 2026.
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