Payment News

The Mobile Money Account Paradox

GSMA has published the number of mobile money accounts in 2020 in different regions, and how many of them are active.

The paradox is why are only 25% of registered accounts overall actually active? The data goes on to pose further questions, eg. why is there such a variation between the lowest percentage active region, Middle East and Africa region at 5%, and the highest, Latin America and the Caribbean at 41%?

The variation between regions for transactions per active account is also surprising. No doubt remittances play a big part, hence Europe having a relatively low figure.

With all the focus and hype on Fintech, both the total number of accounts and the number relative to the population of each of these regions, is small.