The Growth of Mobile Money Transfer in Africa

In 2021 the glob­al mobile val­ue stood at 1 tril­lion dol­lars. The African con­ti­nent account­ed for about 70 per­cent of the sta­tis­tics. The adop­tion of mobile mon­ey in Africa con­tin­ues to rise with Glob­al Sys­tem for Mobile Communications(GSMA) fig­ures high­light­ing an increase from 27.5 bil­lion in 2020 to 36.7 bil­lion in 2021.

Mobile Money Enables Growth of Business

The con­ve­nience of mobile mon­ey makes it con­ve­nient for African coun­tries to trans­act busi­ness among them­selves. Africa remains to be the biggest play­er in mobile mon­ey, ben­e­fit­ing both busi­ness-to-con­sumer and busi­ness-to-busi­ness enter­pris­es. In East Africa for instance there are 296 mil­lion reg­is­tered mobile mon­ey accounts. This account­ed for $403.4 bil­lion in the year 2021. 

M‑Pesa — Mobile Money in Kenya

M‑Pesa is cur­rent­ly the most pop­u­lar mobile mon­ey provider in Africa as well as the largest Fin­tech plat­form in the region. In Kenya, Tan­za­nia, Mozam­bique, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of Con­go, Lesotho, Ghana, Egypt, Afghanistan, and South Africa, M‑Pesa serves an esti­mat­ed 51 mil­lion cus­tomers.

Pay­ment pro­cess­ing, air­time top-up, and a cost-effec­tive means of con­duct­ing busi­ness are all includ­ed in the ser­vices offered. Kenya remains the largest mar­ket account­ing for 30 mil­lion of the 51 mil­lion users. M‑Pesa has been vital for Kenyans with a huge per­cent­age of the pop­u­la­tion using it for day-to-day trans­ac­tions. The ser­vices have also reached oth­er coun­tries as demand for mobile mon­ey trans­fers increases.

Telebirr — Mobile Money in Ethiopia

On Oct. 6, Safari­com switched its mobile telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions net­work in Ethiopia’s cap­i­tal, Addis Aba­ba. The Ethiopi­an gov­ern­ment issued Safari­com a full-ser­vice license. The company’s mobile ser­vices have been availed in 11 cities with expan­sion plans to 14 more cities by 2023.

Ethiopia has a pop­u­la­tion of over 100 mil­lion peo­ple, which gives it a huge oppor­tu­ni­ty for mobile mon­ey trans­ac­tions and devel­op­ment in the coun­try. Ethiopi­ans have already embraced the con­cept of mobile mon­ey, lead­ing to almost half a bil­lion dol­lars in transactions.

Ethiopian Telecom

Mobile mon­ey in Ethiopia is avail­able and is pro­vid­ed by state-owned Ethio Tele­com. Through TeleBirr, 21 mil­lion sub­scribers have trans­act­ed $492 mil­lion. The intro­duc­tion of Safaricom’s M‑Pesa will offer com­pe­ti­tion for the mon­ey ser­vice TeleBirr. The entrance of M‑Pesa in Ethiopia will lead to more growth of mobile mon­ey transfers.

Ethiopi­ans in the dias­po­ra can eas­i­ly trans­act busi­ness in their coun­try through M‑Pesa.