According to the third annual Mobile Financial Services State of the Industry Report, which was released by the GSMAs Mobile Money for the Unbanked program, the number of registered mobile money accounts nearly tripled from 71 million in June 2011 to 203 million in June 2013.
At the end of 2013, there were 219 mobile money services in 84 countries, compared to 179 services in 75 countries at the end of 2012.
Also, the report revealed that the majority of services remain in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 52 % of all live mobile money deployments located in the region. However, mobile money is also expanding outside Africa, with 19 mobile money launches planned in Latin America.
In addition, the report revealed that 13 services each have more than 1 million active mobile money accounts.
At the end of 2013, nine countries — Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe — already had more mobile money accounts than bank accounts, compared to just four countries in 2012. In these countries, the mobile money industry has made financial services accessible to more people than the traditional banking industry, the GSMA added.
In June 2013, transactions involving external companies using mobile money as a platform to receive and make payments drove the growth in mobile money globally, representing 29 % of the total value of transactions. These transactions are also growing much faster than airtime top-ups and on-net transfers.
Finally, the report showed that in June 2013, 53,000 merchants were accepting payments via mobile money, and 16,000 organisations currently use mobile money as a payment platform for accepting bill payments or making salary payments.
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