Africa now accounts for 70% of the world’s $1 trillion mobile money value. The value of Africa’s mobile money transactions edged up 39% to $701.4 billion in 2021 from $495 billion in 2020, highlighting the future of African banking is mobile.
GSMA’s figures show the volume of digital transactions jumped 23% to 36.7 billion in 2021 from 27.5 billion in 2020.
In the review period, registered mobile wallets in Africa topped 621 million, a 17% increase from 562 million captured in 2020. Currently, there are over 184 million active mobile money wallets on the continent compared to 161 million accounts just over a year before.
According to Ashley Olson Onyango, Head of Financial Inclusion, GSMA, although the use of digital transactions has become a global phenomenon, African users remain a significant driver.
“As a result, businesses and individuals alike have benefited from this fast-paced digitization of payments, unlocking access to more products and services, building financial resilience, and bringing about commercial opportunities,” Ashley Olson Onyango.
The African mobile money ecosystem is also rapidly diversifying as is the rest of the world, from business-to-consumer (B2C) to Business-to-business (B2B.)
“A key feature of the industry’s progress in the past years has been mobile money’s rapid diversification beyond its key traditional use case: person-to-person transactions (for example transferring money to family and friends).” Ashley Olson Onyango.
According to GSMA, the total global transaction value in 2021 was $1.045 trillion, up 31% from 2020. While the trillion-dollar mark was a long-awaited goal of the industry, the GSMA had initially predicted it would not be achieved until 2023.
