Africa Banks on Mobile Payments

Only 28.5% of Africa’s 1.17 billion people have bank accounts and the infrastructure of bank branches and ATMs is sparse. The last 20 years had seen payments in Africa change rapidly along African lines, rather than those of Europe or Asia or elsewhere. While payments in Africa continue to change, it appears that the future is mobile.

Today Sub-Saharan Africa has 49% of the world’s active mobile money registered accounts and 64% and 66% by volume and value of transactions respectively, according to a recent webinar by Statista, the business data platform, using GSMA data. Why? The answer appears to be accessibility, affordability and availability.

In Africa mobile money started with M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007, with new entrants following on and with rapid growth around the continent, 48% CAGR in Uganda being the highest.