Is this loan app approved by the Bank of Tanzania?

Check the app before it sees your phone

A text message offers you TZS 150,000 in ten minutes, with a link to download an app. Or a friend on WhatsApp swears by one. Once installed, a loan app can ask to see a great deal of what is on your phone. Before you tap Install, you can check it against two lists the Bank of Tanzania publishes: the platforms it has cleared, and the apps it has named as not approved.

The rule behind those lists dates from 27 August 2024. From then on, a licensed microfinance lender that wants to lend through an app, a website or a USSD menu has had to apply to the Bank for a "no-objection letter" first. That is guidance 4.1 of the Bank's 2024 Guidance Note on Digital Lenders (full title in the sources below). The Bank's covering circular, also dated 27 August 2024, gave lenders who were already lending digitally 30 days to get the letter, and told them not to take on new loans without it.

The note covers Tier 2 lenders only: companies and individual money lenders that lend but do not take deposits, licensed by the Bank. Paragraph 3 of the circular limits the note to Tier 2 lenders in Mainland Tanzania, and section 2 of the Microfinance Act 2018 limits the Act the same way. If you live in Zanzibar, neither the note nor the Act covers lenders there, and this guide does not describe Zanzibar's own rules. An app on the unapproved list is still one the Bank has not cleared, wherever you live.

The two lists, and what each one tells you

The approved list sits on the Bank's List of Licensed Institutions page, next to the register of Tier 2 lenders. The unapproved list has a page of its own, List of Unapproved Digital Lending Platforms.

With no company names, addresses or phone numbers on the unapproved list, you can match an app against it only by name, so spelling matters.

Kopesha downloaded both files again on 28 September 2026, and they were byte for byte the same as the copies described here. The Bank can replace either file at any time, so open the current one yourself before you rely on it.

The 19 approved platforms

Here is the approved list as the Bank published it, in its own order, with one column added: the licence number each company holds on the Bank's register of Tier 2 lenders as of 14 August 2026. The register sometimes writes these numbers with spaces or a long dash, as in "MSP2 – G19"; here they have a plain hyphen.

Seventeen of the 19 are on the Google Play Store. None is listed on Apple's App Store, so an iPhone app that claims the Bank's approval is claiming something this list does not show.

The two documents don't always agree on names. The register has, for example, Airpay Microfinance (without "Limited"), ESN Microcredit Company Limited, Sharp Financial Services Company Limited and Y9 Microfinance Tanzania Limited. Phone numbers differ too. For Y9, Lighting and Singularity, the numbers on the approved list are not the ones on the register, so ask the company to confirm its licence number before you borrow.

Baromo's phone numbers also differ between the two documents, and its entry raises a bigger question. The register of 14 August 2026 lists Baromo Micro-Credit Limited, licence MSP2-917, among licensed lenders. Its separate section headed "Non-operating microfinances" lists a Baromo Micro-Credit with licence MSP2-0917 and the status "revoked". The documents do not say which entry is current. If you are thinking of borrowing through ONEPESA, ask the Bank first.

How to check an app, step by step

1. Write down the app's exact name and where you found it: the store link, the website, or the number that sent you the message.
2. Look for it on the approved list. Match the platform name and the place it is offered, because the list says where each platform is hosted. If an app with a listed name reaches you some other way, such as a file you are told to install straight from a link in a text message, it is not coming from the place the Bank listed, so treat it as unapproved.
3. Search the unapproved list for the name, and for versions with a letter, a space or a word added.
4. Find the lender on the Tier 2 register and note its licence (leseni) number. Kopesha's directory of Tier 2 lenders is built from the register of 14 August 2026, but the Bank's PDF is the document that counts, so confirm the number there. How to check that a lender is licensed explains the register and its licence numbers.
5. When the app opens, read its landing (welcome) screen before you type anything. Guidance 3.1(d) requires the name on the lender's licence on that screen, in a sentence that begins "This App … is owned or operated by". Under 3.1(h) the same screen must give complaint phone numbers and emails that belong to the lender and actually work. Compare them with the numbers on the Bank's list.
6. Watch what the app asks to see. Guidance 3.1(b) requires the app to get your consent for the data it takes from your phone, limit its access to the specific data the loan process needs, and end that access once the loan is over. Under 5.1(b), an approved lender may not use the app to get into your contacts, call logs, messages, photos, files, social media, email or other apps, either to check your identity or to manage arrears.
7. When the first code (OTP) arrives, read the message itself. Under guidance 3.1(b)(iii), OTPs and transaction messages must name the lender as it appears on its Bank of Tanzania licence.

What an approved app must show you, and must not do

Approval comes with conditions. Guidance 3.1 of the note sets out what the platform must have, and guidance 5.1 lists what a lender holding a no-objection letter may not do. Besides the landing screen, these are the ones you can check from your own phone:

• Kiswahili, or Kiswahili and English with Kiswahili as the default, in simple words (3.1(g)).
• A receipt or instant message for every payment or other transaction you make (5.1(g)).
• Loans and repayments in Tanzanian shillings only (5.1(s)), and no deposits taken or asked for (5.1(l)).
• A warning to you before a debt collector, call centre or agent is allowed to contact you about the loan (5.1(q)).
• A way to get a guarantor's (mdhamini's) consent, and a written statement telling the guarantor what they are liable for (5.1(o)).

Approval says nothing about whether a loan is cheap. The price rules are in what a mobile-money loan really costs: what the app must show before you apply (3.1(f)), the ban on asking for interest upfront (5.1(p)), and how to convert the fee on a short loan into rates you can compare.

Be very wary of an app that asks you to send money before any loan is paid out. That is how the advance-fee trick works, and how loan scams work explains the few charges a licensed lender may take and how to tell them apart.

Guidance 5.1 also forbids threats, shaming and messages to your contacts when a payment is late. If that is happening to you, what to do when a loan app harasses you sets out whom to complain to and in what order.

Look-alike names on the unapproved list

Several names on the unapproved list come in more than one spelling. Some examples, exactly as the Bank wrote them:

• Ha Mkopo, HaMkopo and HaMkopo App
• KopaSafi, Kopasafi x and Kopasafix
• Changu pesa and Changuu pesa
• Popocash and PoPoCash Pro
• Pesa sasa and Pesasasa

Some names on the list sound like charities or public figures, such as "Mama samia mikopo foundation", "Mo Dewji Foundation" and "Tulia foundation mikopo". The list does not say who is behind them, only that the Bank has not approved them.

Some unapproved names sit close to approved ones. "Airpesa" and "AirPesa Get money fast loan" are on the unapproved list, while "AIRPAY RAFIKI", run by Airpay Microfinance Limited, is on the approved list. On a small screen those are easy to mix up, so match the whole name and the company.

The same goes for a variant of an approved name. Guidance 5.1(a) allows a cleared lender only one digital lending platform, though that platform may offer several loan products, and 5.1(r) forbids transferring or sharing a cleared platform with anyone else. So treat a "Pro", "App" or "X" version of a listed name as unapproved unless that exact name is on the approved list.

When the lists don't settle it

The date on the Bank's web page and the date in the file can differ. On 28 September 2026 the Swahili version of the page described the unapproved list as current "hadi kufikia 31 Disemba 2025", while the file itself says 28 February 2026. Go by the date inside the file.

An app on neither list is not shown as cleared by the Bank. Don't read its absence from the unapproved list as good news: the Bank says it will update that list regularly as it identifies apps, so a newer app may not have been reached yet. That page also calls on the public to report straight away any lending app that is missing from the Bank's list of licensed or approved institutions.

Banks sit outside both lists. The approved list covers only platforms run by Tier 2 microfinance lenders, so a loan from a commercial bank will not be on it, even when it is sold through a phone menu. The bank itself appears under a heading such as "Commercial Bank" or "Microfinance Banks" on the same List of Licensed Institutions page. SACCOS (Tier 3) and community groups (Tier 4) are licensed and registered differently, as the licence-checking guide explains.

What you risk with an unapproved app, and whom to tell

Section 16 of the Microfinance Act 2018 makes it an offence to run a microfinance business with no licence. For a Tier 2 business the penalty on conviction is a fine of TZS 20 million to TZS 100 million, or two to five years in prison, or both (section 16(2)(a)). The notice on the Bank's unapproved-list page says that lending through an app the Bank has not approved is an offence under that section.

For you, the same notice carries a warning: a person found dealing with such an app "risks losing the rights of protection afforded to consumers of financial services" under the Financial Consumer Protection Regulations 2019, as amended. Regulation 2 of those regulations, as replaced in 2025, applies them to financial service providers that the Bank licenses, or supervises and regulates. The Bank's 2025 complaint guidelines, which set out how Sema na BoT handles complaints, apply to financial service providers as those regulations define them (clause 3).

If you already borrowed from an app that turns out to be unapproved, what you owe and how the app behaves are separate questions. Keep a screenshot of the amount you received, the charges shown and every repayment, and switch off in your phone's settings any permission the app did not need.

To report an app, write to complaints-desk@bot.go.tz. The Bank's public notices page names that address for reports about anyone providing financial services without a valid licence. Its website footer, as shown on 28 September 2026, also lists info@bot.go.tz and the phone numbers +255 26 2963182 (lines 2963182 to 2963187) and +255 22 2232541. Give the app's exact name, where you found it, the company name it shows (if any) and dated screenshots.

A complaint (malalamiko) against a lender on the approved list goes to that lender's own complaints desk first. If you are not satisfied with its decision, or it does not answer within the time the rules allow, you can escalate it to Sema na BoT, where the Bank takes complaints (clause 25). Your rights as a borrower sets out the channels and the time limits at each step.

Sources

• Guidance Note on Digital Lenders under Tier 2 Microfinance Service Providers, 2024 — Bank of Tanzania
• Circular of 27 August 2024 publishing the Guidance Note (Ref. FA.377/433/01/486) — Bank of Tanzania
• List of Approved Digital Lending Platforms operated by Tier 2 Microfinance Service Providers (file created 11 March 2026) — Bank of Tanzania
• Orodha ya majukwaa na programu tumizi ambazo hazijaidhinishwa, hadi kufikia 28 Februari 2026 — Bank of Tanzania
• List of Unapproved Digital Lending Platforms (notice page) — Bank of Tanzania
• List of Licensed Institutions — Bank of Tanzania
• Taarifa kwa umma: Watoa Huduma za Fedha wasiosajiliwa (reporting unlicensed providers) — Bank of Tanzania
• Register of Tier 2 Microfinance Service Providers as of 14 August 2026 — Bank of Tanzania
• Microfinance Act, 2018 (sections 2, 5 and 16)
• Bank of Tanzania (Financial Consumer Protection) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025, GN 298
• Guidelines for Handling Financial Consumer Complaints, 2025 — Bank of Tanzania

What changed

• 29 September 2026: First published.

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