The number of active mobile money accounts (30-day) in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region reached record high in 2021, a BusinessDay analysis shows.
According to a recent report on mobile money by the Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA), that tracks data in the mobile telecommunications industry, SSA active mobile accounts increased year-on-year by 15.1percent to 183 million, highest in 10 years.
“A decade of growth in active accounts and transaction values has shown that mobile money is playing an increasingly important role in the daily lives of people in Lower Middle-Income Country. It is also diversifying its value proposition,” the report stated.
It adds “Beyond P2P transfers and cash-in/cash-out transactions, the growth of partnership driven “ecosystem transactions “such as bill payments, bulk disbursements, merchant payments and international remittances, together with interoperable transactions, are accounting for a greater share of the global mobile money transaction mix.”
Similarly, Mats Granryd, the director general at GSMA said the Covid-19 pandemic has made mobile money even more critical, and the data shows this.
Read also: Building agility putting your money where your mouth is
“As people increasingly paid for everyday goods and services through their mobile money accounts, merchant payments skyrocketed.”
A breakdown of the global active mobile money accounts (346 million) shows that SSA had the highest with 183 million, followed by South Asia with 70 million, East-Asia and Pacific (64 million), Latin America and the Caribbean (20 million), the Middle East and North Africa (5 million), and Europe and Central Asia(5 million).
In terms of transaction value, out of the total one trillion dollars recorded, SSA took the largest share of $697.7 billion, South Asia ($156.3 billion), East-Asia and Pacific ($141 billion), in Latin America and the Caribbean ($30 billion), the Middle East and North Africa ($13.7 billion), and Europe and Central Asia ($6.3 billion).
The report in its tenth year also showed that since 2012, mobile money accounts have increased tenfold globally while active services on offer have almost doubled to 316 and expanded to 98 countries worldwide.
“Over the last decade, we have seen the transformative power of mobile money in providing a pathway to financial inclusion,” It stated.
“Yet, our work is far from over. As economies build back from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must ensure that mobile money helps everyone have access to the tools they need to weather economic storms, build financial health and participate in an inclusive recovery.”
