Trusted by 3M+ people around the world
GOOGLE PLAY •22K REVIEWS
APP STORE • 12K REVIEWS
Shillings to a wallet or a bank in Tanzania
Tanzania is a country where the mobile wallet frequently beats the bank branch, and the payout options reflect that. Grey sends TZS to M-Pesa Tanzania, Tigo Pesa or Airtel Money using the registered mobile number, or into an account at CRDB Bank, NMB Bank, Stanbic Tanzania or Standard Chartered Tanzania.
The choice matters when half a team sits in Dar es Salaam with a bank account and the other half is at a field site hours from the nearest branch. Both halves receive shillings, on the same day, from one balance held in Switzerland.
How a Tanzanian payment is made
Sign up
Passport or Swiss residence permit, a free account, and roughly five minutes before the first recipient can be added.
Fund
Euros by SEPA transfer from UBS, PostFinance, Raiffeisen or a cantonal bank. Grant income in dollars converts to shillings directly from a USD account provided by Lead Bank.
Send
A registered mobile number for a wallet payout, an account number for a bank one. Confirm the TZS figure and the payment goes.
Cost on the Tanzania route
Grey shows the conversion into TZS and the fee before you confirm, so a finance officer in Basel or Bern can reconcile a field budget without reverse engineering what a correspondent took along the way.
Frequency is the other half of the problem. A study that pays enumerators weekly makes forty or fifty small payments a month, and pricing you cannot see compounds faster there than anywhere else.
The shilling figure holds once you send
Confirm in Basel and the TZS total is fixed. Whatever the shilling does between that confirmation and the credit in Dar es Salaam or Mwanza is Grey's exposure, not the recipient's.
That is what allows a per diem rate to be written into a protocol and then actually paid at that rate, month after month.
Compared with sending through a Swiss bank
A Swiss bank cannot reach Tigo Pesa or Airtel Money at all, and a SWIFT payment to CRDB Bank or NMB Bank arrives converted at a rate you were never shown. Grey pays wallet and bank alike in shillings, at a rate fixed before the payment moves.
How the shillings land in Tanzania
A shilling credit in the wallet or account they already use. There is nothing to install and no Grey account required at the Tanzanian end.
Mobile money payout
M-Pesa Tanzania, Tigo Pesa and Airtel Money, addressed by the registered mobile number.
Bank payout
CRDB Bank, NMB Bank, Stanbic Tanzania and Standard Chartered Tanzania, by account number.
Grey to Grey
GreyTag between two Grey users is free and settles within seconds.
Funding options from Switzerland
Everything runs off a funded balance. Because the franc is not held, Swiss senders build that balance in euros by SEPA and convert to shillings at the point of payment.
SEPA in euros
An ordinary euro transfer from your Swiss bank, arriving as a euro balance on Grey.
Institutional income
Money already received in euros or dollars can fund the next Tanzanian payment without leaving Grey.
Standing float
Useful when allowances are paid weekly rather than once a month.
A team waiting on subsistence money at a field site is a poor reason to find out that a top up takes a day to clear.
What this corridor carries
Field allowances
Per diems, transport and subsistence for enumerators and field staff working away from Dar es Salaam, paid to mobile wallets.
Local salaries
Monthly pay for Tanzanian staff on a project contract, into CRDB Bank, NMB Bank or a wallet, in shillings.
Research partners
Payments to Tanzanian institutions, laboratories and co-investigators on studies run jointly with Swiss partners.
Family and school fees
Tanzanians living in Zurich, Basel and Geneva supporting relatives in Arusha, Mwanza and Dodoma, and paying school fees at home.
Switzerland's institutional link with Tanzania is old and specific: public health research, mission hospitals, water and conservation programmes, and the Swiss offices in Basel, Bern and Geneva that fund and staff them.
Reasons to use Grey for Tanzania
FAQs
Does a field team receive shillings or foreign currency?
Tanzanian shillings. Conversion happens before the payment leaves Switzerland, so no one upcountry has to change money on arrival.
Can Grey pay a Tanzanian mobile wallet?
Yes. M-Pesa Tanzania, Tigo Pesa and Airtel Money are all supported, addressed by the recipient's registered mobile number.
Which Tanzanian banks are covered?
CRDB Bank, NMB Bank, Stanbic Tanzania and Standard Chartered Tanzania. Enter the account number and the shillings credit that account.
Can I pay field allowances to people without a bank account?
Yes. A wallet payout needs only a registered number, which is why teams working away from Dar es Salaam are usually paid that way.
How do I fund the balance from Switzerland?
By SEPA transfer in euros from UBS, PostFinance, Raiffeisen or a cantonal bank. Grey does not hold Swiss francs.
Can dollar grant money be used directly?
Yes. Dollars held in an account provided by Lead Bank convert straight into shillings, which avoids a second conversion through euros.
When is the exchange rate fixed?
At confirmation. The TZS figure shown in Basel is the figure that settles in Tanzania, whatever the shilling does afterwards.
Does a research assistant in Dar es Salaam need to sign up?
No. Payment reaches the M-Pesa Tanzania, Tigo Pesa or Airtel Money wallet, or the CRDB or NMB account, they already hold.
Can I get verified before a field season starts?
Usually within a few minutes. A passport or Swiss residence permit is all verification needs, and the Grey account costs nothing.
Can I show a finance officer the cost before releasing the payment?
Yes. The fee and the EUR to TZS rate sit on the confirmation screen as two separate figures, before anything is committed.
Can one balance pay both wallets and banks?
Yes. The same euro balance in Switzerland funds a Tigo Pesa payout and a CRDB Bank payout in the same session.
Get digital banking
at your fingertips
