By Andrei Skvarsky.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to almost three-quarters of the world’s mobile payment application accounts, the GSMA, a global association of mobile operators and mobile-related businesses said.
Between 2013 and 2022, payments via mobile apps brought about an increase of more than $150bn or 3.7 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa’s combined gross domestic product, the GSMA said in the 2024 edition of its annual State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money (SOTIR).
In West Africa, one of the regions south of the Sahara, the number of registered mobile money accounts doubled between 2013 and 2023, SOTIR said, mainly putting this down to growth in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.
Worldwide, “for over two decades mobile money services have grown exponentially”, SOTIR said.
“Today, 1.75bn registered accounts are processing $1.4 trillion a year, or about $2.7 million a minute.”