Electronic ticketing is spreading in Tanzania, but digital payment is not keeping up. Figures released at the end of September 2026 by the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA) show that over the past four years, only 4.7% of bus passengers recorded in the online ticketing system paid for their trip electronically. Everyone else paid in cash.
Between the 2022/23 and 2025/26 financial years, the platform recorded 62.18 million passengers. Of these, 59.27 million, or 95.3%, paid in cash. Fewer than 2.91 million used mobile money, a bank card or another digital method. The money tells the same story. Out of 2.13 trillion shillings in fares, 1.99 trillion was collected in cash. Electronic payments brought in just 144.28 billion shillings, or 6.8% of the total.
The law already requires digital payment. Under the Electronic Transactions Act, it is mandatory for Dar es Salaam’s bus rapid transit, long-distance coaches, ferries and ride-hailing platforms. Since 2022, travellers have also been able to book and pay for tickets through the Safari Tiketi app. By June 2026, fourteen bus companies had linked their systems to LATRA’s platform.
LATRA’s Director General, Habibu Suluo, is measured in his assessment. He says operators and the government are « gradually » seeing the transparency benefits of electronic payment. He summed up the challenge in one line: « Hardware is ready, but what about software? » In other words, spending on infrastructure will achieve little without the tools, procedures and habits that make it work.
The lag stands out against how fast the sector is growing. In five years, the number of commercial transport licences rose by 146%, from 239,953 to 590,468. Buses tracked by LATRA’s vehicle tracking system went from 5,979 to 14,743. Ride-hailing has grown too, with 22 licensed platforms now running more than 23,500 licensed vehicles.
For the government, cash is a real problem. Fares paid in cash are harder to trace, which makes it harder to monitor revenue, collect taxes and stop overcharging. A market worth more than 2 trillion shillings is still mostly invisible to digital oversight, even though Tanzania is one of the African countries where mobile money is most widely used.
Time is short. Tanzania will co-host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations with Kenya and Uganda, and tens of thousands of fans are expected on its roads. LATRA says it will step up oversight before then and plans a Sustainable Land Transport Week in November 2026. To succeed, it will have to convince both passengers and operators that paying by phone is easier and safer than handing over a banknote.