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My Vision for Tanzania: Better Payments for the People Behind Trade

Farmers and clearing agents need systems that make the next step clear. That is the practical ambition behind the Tanzania work.

Garang Mayom Malek · Published 24 September 2026 · Updated 24 September 2026 · 4 minute read

Soma kwa Kiswahili ↗

A payment system earns its place in people’s lives by making an ordinary task easier. A farmer should be able to understand where a payment stands. A clearing agent should be able to establish which step is complete and what still needs attention. Those are the questions I want our work in Tanzania to answer.

Technology becomes useful when it respects the person who depends on it. That means clear instructions, a reliable record and someone who can resolve a problem. My vision for Tanzania starts with that everyday experience.

Two different kinds of work

CapitalPay’s published Tanzania programme describes work with Korosho Cooperative Joint Enterprise Ltd on validating farmers’ bank accounts before payments are disbursed. The company describes preparations for a pilot and testing ahead of full deployment.

It also describes the TAFFA/TACAS clearing-agent programme, centred on a compliance-certificate process for the freight-forwarding sector. These are separate programmes with different users, responsibilities and measures of progress. Each deserves its own clear account.

For a cooperative, the practical problem is getting the payment details right and handling the exceptions. For a clearing agent, it is understanding the service, the applicable requirements and the steps that lead from a payment to a usable record. A useful system should reflect those differences.

Start with the person receiving the service

My ambition for farmer payments is straightforward: make it easier to correct a problem before it delays someone’s money. A bank-account check is valuable when the result leads to a practical action. If details need attention, the farmer should understand what to correct, how to do it and where to get help.

Good design also respects the people helping farmers. Cooperative staff need a manageable list of cases to resolve, with the right access to information. The process should show whether a correction has been accepted and whether another attempt is needed. Clear responsibility matters as much as a clear screen.

For clearing agents, the equivalent is a predictable process. Before starting, an agent should be able to find the relevant service information, payment instructions, support arrangements and terms. When a record is incomplete, the system should explain the next step in language the user can act on.

Judge progress through ordinary tasks

A useful pilot should help answer questions that matter outside the project team. How many payment attempts completed? How many needed corrected details? How long did resolution take? Could the people involved understand the instructions without repeatedly asking for help?

These are measures I would use to assess progress. The results should carry a reporting period, a definition and enough context to explain what happened. A single total tells much less than an account of completed cases and the problems still being resolved.

The same discipline belongs in trade administration. A progress update should explain which tasks users can complete, which organisations participate and what happens when a step fails. A reader should be able to distinguish a signed agreement, a test and an operating service.

Make the next update useful

The next meaningful account of the Korosho programme would describe the pilot scope, the participating users and the testing period, followed by results from completed attempts. For the clearing-agent programme, a practical update would set out responsibilities, participation instructions and the documented rollout stage.

Publishing that information gives the people using a service a clearer picture of what to expect. It also makes feedback more useful: a farmer, agent or partner can point to a specific step and explain what needs to work better.

I want this website to make that progress easy to follow. The Tanzania project pages bring together the current public descriptions, the date each source was checked and the next evidence that would explain delivery. As new information becomes available, the record can become more detailed.

The vision

The long-term ambition is practical: payment infrastructure that helps people get on with their work. Farmers receiving understandable updates. Agents finding clear instructions. Institutions being able to resolve a disputed transaction through a record they can explain.

That takes cooperation between the organisations providing a service and the people using it. It takes careful testing, patient support and a willingness to improve a process when experience shows where it is difficult.

Tanzania deserves systems that people can use with confidence. That is the standard I want the work to meet.

Filed under Tanzania.