The number of bank agents in Tanzania increased by 51.5 percent to 80,295 in March this year from 53,006 registered during the same period last year, partly following moderation of agent banking eligibility criteria and enhanced public awareness according to the Bank of Tanzania Zonal Economic Performance Report for the Quarter ending March 2023.
Accordingly, the value of cash deposits and withdrawals increased by 13.5 percent and 25.8 percent, respectively.
According to the Central Bank data, cash deposit rose to 13.34bn/- in March, 2023 as compared to 11.75bn/- recorded during the same period last year.
The cash withdraw value also rose to 4.22bn/- in March 2023 from 3.335n/- recorded during the similar period last year.
BoT data shows that Dar es Salaam region had the biggest number of bank agents totaling 26,880 followed by the Lake Zone that had 14,232 agents and the Northern Zone that had 11,998 bank agents.
Cash deposits in Dar es Salaam region grew to 3.76bn/- in March 2023 from 3.33bn/- recorded during the same period last year while cash withdraws fell to 1.15bn/- in March 2023 from 1.42bn/- recorded during the same period in 2022.
In the Lake Zone, cash deposits rose to 3.08bn/- in March, 2023 from 2.89bn/- recorded during the similar period last year while cash withdraws rose to 809.4m/- in March 2023 from 694.9m/- recorded during the similar period in 2022.