Tala suspends its financial operation in Tanzania. It has not yet made a decision to permanently shut down their loan services in Tanzania
Mobile money lender Tala has suspended its financial operations in Tanzania.
In a statement given by Tala, the company has not yet made a decision to permanently shut down their loan services in Tanzania but are reviewing their operations in the country to make their final decision.
A section of Tala’s statement reads, “Tala Tanzania has not made a decision to permanently close operations. However, after piloting our credit product in Tanzania, we have paused our lending operations and are undertaking a review of our operations to determine our path forward in the market. “
The money lending company serves more than 4 million subscribers at an approximated Ksh.100 billion ($961.9 million dollars), said that they are actively working to continue to support financial services access to Tanzania.
According to Tala, Kenya remains the heart of Tala’s operations with a customer reach of over 3 million and ease in offering financial services. It assured that its operations in Kenya would remain uninterrupted.
“Our operations in Kenya continue uninterrupted as Kenya is a critical part of our global business. We are continuing to evolve our product to meet the needs of our 3 million customers here and are also piloting some exciting new offerings in financial education and coaching.” The statement reads.
This comes after Tala and Vodacom bosses were charged with economic sabotage in Dar es Salaam in April 2019. They were charged with causing the Tanzanian government the loss of Tsh.5.8 billion ($2.5 million) in the fraudulent use of their social networks. The court was told that the accused intentionally and wilfully organized a criminal racket, which cost the Tanzanian government the money.
The mobile lending company is a revolutionizing financial service for underserved. It currently operates in Kenya, Mexico, India and the Philippines, who use the Tala loans to pay school and bills, expand small businesses and build more stable financial lives.
In August 2019, the company recently got Ksh.11 billion funding from investment firm RPS Ventures with participation from others such as GGV Capital, PayPal Ventures, IVP and Revolution Growth.
The funding was to support Tala’s launch of new products and help it grow its operations across the world.
Source: The Exchange