A report by the GSMA showed that over $2 billion are processed daily by the mobile money industry, with 300 million monthly active accounts.
The ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’ 2021 also noted that 1.2 billion mobile money accounts were registered in the year 2020.
In 2020, registered mobile money accounts grew by 12.7 percent, with an addition of 136 million in just a single year.
That figure exceeded expectations, as it was projected that growth would surge by 6.7 percent.
Mobile money accounts in Africa shot past the half billion-dollar mark, with Sub-Saharan Africa leading the pack of registered mobile money users.
In 2020, the number of registered accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa was 548 million, with a monthly active base of 150 million.
The report stated that the strongest growths were recorded in the West, East, and Southern Africa – although, Southern Africa saw a 24 percent year-on-year growth, the fastest in 2020.
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Despite economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the mobile money business saw countries working to adopt cashless payment systems.
The total value of transactions in 2020 rose by 22 percent, to sum up to $767 billion, meaning that the industry witnessed a daily transaction of $2 billion, which has grown twofold since 2017.
The GSMA report predicts that the value of daily transactions would go past the $2 billion mark recorded the previous year and hit a total of $3 billion daily.
GSMA’s Chief Regulatory Officer, John Giusti, said, “We see that mobile money is a powerful tool for expanding the financial inclusion of women in low- and middle-income countries.
“This year’s report, however, found that across markets women are still 33 per cent less likely than men to have a mobile money account.
“The GSMA and its members are committed to closing this gender gap by addressing the barriers that prevent women from accessing and using mobile financial services.”
