Microfinance Licensing in Tanzania: Which Tier Actually Applies

This page is the microfinance-tier operating file: which BOT box you are actually in. It is not a PSP/fintech licence, not a bank licence, and not a SACCOS how-to.

• Payments / EMI: PSP licensing
• Corporate account: bank onboarding
• Source of funds: capital trail

As at 10 September 2026. Confirm bot.go.tz. This page publishes no minimum-capital figure, no tier threshold, and no licence fee.

Tiers, in operator language

The Microfinance Act framework distinguishes institutions that take deposits from those that only lend, and distinguishes companies from savings groups and community forms. The live BOT notices name the tiers. This page will not freeze their labels or their capital rows. If your product takes customer savings, you are not in the ‘just a lender’ box. If your product is a wallet, you may be in the payments file instead. Read both.

A BRELA objects clause that lists ‘microfinance’ does not licence the activity. Objects are not a BOT certificate.

What sits beside the licence

Sequence

1. Describe the product honestly: credit-only, deposit-taking, wallet, or SACCOS.
2. Form the person the live tier requires.
3. Capitalise with a trail the bank and BOT can reconcile.
4. Apply on the live BOT process.
5. Then lend: not before.

Where this file stalls

• Lending from a trading company because ‘it is only small tickets’
• Taking savings in a notebook
• Calling a wallet ‘microfinance’ to skip PSP
• Inventing a capital figure from a 2019 PDF

Documents this file usually needs

Product description; constitution; beneficial owners; source-of-funds pack; draft policies BOT currently names (credit, AML, consumer); premises; systems. If you cannot describe whose money sits on the balance sheet, you cannot pick a tier. Confirm the live application list on bot.go.tz: do not photocopy a forum checklist.

What this page will never publish

A capital number. A licence fee. A statement that BRELA is enough. A sandbox that does not exist on a primary notice this desk has confirmed. Confirm bot.go.tz.

Failure modes the officer already knows

Shopfront ‘loans’ with no licence. Using mobile-money agent lines as a deposit-taking disguise. Foreign-controlled ownership that also trips a reserved class: screen GN 487A separately. Mixing SACCOS law into a company MFI.

Operator calendar

Product memo first. Person second. Capital third. BOT application fourth. Lending fifth. Marketing that you are ‘already licensed’ during the application is how you meet supervision early.

What to put in the board minutes

Write the tier you believe you are in and why. Write that no customer funds move until the live licence exists. If a founder wants to ‘soft launch’, minute the refusal.

What a declined pack usually looked like

A trading company, a WhatsApp loan book, and a capital figure copied from Kenya. BOT will not treat that as a tier. Rebuild the product memo before you pay a painter for the shopfront.

As-at 10 September 2026: what this desk will not freeze

Capital, fees, tier names. Print bot.go.tz the month you apply. Finance Acts and BOT circulars rewrite this stack.

Cross-links without contradicting keepers

PSP/fintech is the payments sibling. Bank onboarding is KYC. Source-of-funds is the inward trail. GN 487A hedging is unchanged and is not a BOT licence. TISEZA is not a microfinance authority.

Worked path: credit-only lender versus deposit-taking

A company that only extends credit from its own capital, with no customer savings, may sit in a credit-only tier. Confirm the live BOT label and capital row. Lending from a hardware shop’s till because ‘tickets are small’ is how you meet supervision without a file. Describe the product. Then pick the tier. Then apply. Then lend.

A product that takes savings, even in a notebook, is not credit-only. Deposit-taking is the loud class. SACCOS are a different person. Do not mix cooperative law into a company MFI because a broker said it was easier.

Consumer protection and AML

BOT will ask how you price, disclose, collect, and hold data. Those policies should exist before the shopfront painter is paid. AML sits beside because loan books are cash-intensive. Source-of-funds for the institution’s own capital is the inward sibling. Customer KYC is your job under the live AML notices.

Digital lenders still pick a tier. An app is not a licence. If the app also holds a wallet, you may be in the PSP file as well. Read both pages. Do not pick the friendlier acronym.

Ownership and reservations

Foreign controllers of an MFI still screen GN 487A for any reserved class they also wanted to run: retail shopfronts, for example. A BOT licence does not open a reserved till. Look-through remains as reported.

TISEZA does not licence microfinance. A certificate of incentive is identity of a project, not a BOT class.

As-at 10 September 2026: BOT circular discipline

Print bot.go.tz the month you apply. Capital rows, tier names and consumer rules move. This page will not freeze a number that a 2019 PDF once showed. If the live notice and this page disagree, the notice wins.

Zatra’s fee is only on /pricing/. Agent networks, if you use them, need their own live permissions. Do not treat a mobile-money agent line as a deposit-taking licence.

What BOT will ask that a shop licence never asked

Where the capital came from, who the beneficial owners are, how you will treat customers, how you will collect, where the data sits, and whether you take savings. A municipal licence answers none of those. Do not open a shopfront that says ‘loans’ until the live BOT class exists. Soft launches with real borrowers are still the activity.

Digital channels do not shrink the tier. An app that books loans is still lending. An app that also holds a float is also PSP. Read both pages. Confirm bot.go.tz the month you apply. This page still prints no capital figure.

Groups, agents and white labels

Using mobile-money agents as if they were your branches does not make you licensed. The principal needs the class. White-labelling a Kenyan MFI does not make you licensed in Tanzania. Confirm the live perimeter. Source-of-funds for the institution remains the inward sibling even if the loan book is local.

GN 487A remains an ownership screen for any reserved class you also wanted to run. A BOT licence is not a retail till. TISEZA is not a microfinance authority. Zatra’s fee is on /pricing/.

Close-out as at 10 September 2026: microfinance tiers

Print bot.go.tz the month you apply. Describe the product honestly: credit-only, deposit-taking, wallet, or SACCOS. A BRELA extract is not a licence. A shop licence is not a licence. Small tickets are still lending. Apps are still lending. Capital rows are not frozen here. Source-of-funds remains the inward sibling. GN 487A remains an ownership screen. TISEZA is not a microfinance authority. Zatra’s fee is on /pricing/. If a later BOT notice rewrites tiers, the notice wins.

Worked failure: the hardware shop loan book

A trading company starts ‘small tickets’ from the till, keeps a notebook of savings, and prints ‘loans’ on the wall. BOT did not licence a tier. A municipal shop licence did not either. An app does not shrink the activity. A Kenyan capital figure does not become Tanzania’s row. Stop lending. Describe the product. Pick the live tier on bot.go.tz. Capitalise with a trail. Apply. Then lend. Wallets may also be PSP. GN 487A still screens ownership. TISEZA is not an MFI authority. No capital figure here. Zatra’s fee is on /pricing/.

If you already lent without a class, stop new loans and take advice on the book that exists. This page is not a regularisation recipe. Confirm bot.go.tz. Do not market through the gap.

Write the balance-sheet sentence in the minutes: whose money sits as loans, and whose money, if any, sits as customer savings. If you cannot write it, you cannot pick a tier. Confirm bot.go.tz. Agent networks and white labels do not borrow someone else’s class. Source-of-funds for the institution remains the inward sibling even when the loan book is local. Professional fees stay on /pricing/.