Vodacom Tanzania and Safaricom of Kenya this past week announced that more than seven million M-Pesa customers in Tanzania and over 18 million Safaricom customers in Kenya can now send and receive funds from each other, according to a press release. This announcement comes on the heels of a mobile interoperability agreement that enables M-Pesa and Tigopesa users to send and receive funds directly into each other’s wallets.

The combined M-Pesa agent network for Safaricom in Kenya and Vodacom in Tanzania totals 150,000, according to the announcement. At the same time, Safaricom has over 80 percent market share for mobile money services in Kenya while Vodacom has over 65 percent market share for mobile money services in Tanzania.

Vodacom Tanzania Managing Director Rene Meza said the process for their subscribers to send M-Pesa to Safaricom subscribers is similar to how it's done nationally, according to the announcement. The only difference is that a Vodacom Tanzania customer will choose what's called option three — send money to M-Pesa Kenya – and enter the mobile number beginning with the +254 prefix.

He said that even before funds are sent, the Vodacom Tanzania customer will be shown the Kenyan shilling equivalent of the transfer the Safaricom customer in Kenya will receive. The Tanzania shilling to Kenya shilling currency conversion will happen immediately and funds will be available instantly via Safaricom’s M-Pesa in Kenya, according to the announcement.