Mobile money matures bringing new opportunities
Over the past two decades mobile money services have grown exponentially, driving financial inclusion for people across the world. Today there are 1.75 billion registered accounts, processing $1.4 trillion a year – or about $2.7 million a minute! These remarkable numbers show mobile money’s enormous impact, transforming billions of lives.
But the story doesn’t start and end with financial inclusion. These services are also driving businesses and in particular creating opportunities for small enterprises around the globe. D&M Group International and Alba Coffee Farm in Uganda, are perfect examples of this – mobile money has enabled Dorothy, the Managing Director of D&M International to scale her business, while Alba Coffee Director, Deus is able to connect with suppliers, customers and the larger community, without the risky practice of carrying cash.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been a key driver of mobile money’s success, and West Africa in particular has emerged as a powerhouse, with the number of registered accounts doubling in the past decade. In 2023, over a third of new registered and active 30-day accounts globally were driven mostly by growth in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.
Mobile money also contributes to economies by improving GDP. In the decade to 2022, mobile money contributed $600 billion to countries with these services, and this continues to grow.
It’s also exciting to see use cases evolving, as mobile money users shift away from basic transactions to more varied services:
Crucially, mobile money remains a leading driver of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), contributing to 15 of the 17 goals, including SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production).
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As we look to the future, it’s clear that mobile money services have the potential to further transform lives and economies. But we need to ensure they remain safe, accessible and affordable, and that citizens acquire the digital and financial literacy skills they need to take advantage of all the opportunities.
While the growth of mobile money over the past 20 years has been incredible, perhaps even more exciting are the opportunities that lie ahead as it continues to mature and innovate. We see glimpses of this in stories like that of Dorothy and Deus, and in the years to come I look forward to hearing many more!
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To find out more about mobile money read the latest State of the Industry Report here.
View Dorothy's story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kowwlvxmy4E
View Deus' story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeNg0-CqFbY
Founder@SHEQONOMI??????PodcastHERS???& The State of Women Institute ????????????????????????Democratizing Podcasting ???Fulbright Scholar to I.I.T.Mumbai on a mission to leverage deep tech for the Bottom Billion ???
11 个月Sairee Chahal Great work with Mahila Money
Creativity, Filmmaking, Strategy, Digital, UX, Design, Brand & Media
11 个月Mats - ??
Founding Partner @ AthenaFundX | Empowering Women in Entrepreneurship
11 个月Learning something new everyday. When we built M-PESA, we never envisioned mobile money could drive nearly 90% of the SDGs. This had made my week!
Mobile money has undoubtedly provided a significant benefit to humanity. Having closely witnessed its development firsthand. Started my mobile money journey many years ago in Garissa in Kenya's remote northeast, and since then observed mobile moneys impact in marginalized communities across various markets, I've come to appreciate its transformative power. However, during our extensive penta byte data sized machine learning analytics on tens of millions of Nigerians some years ago, we began to suspect a fundamental flaw in the exciting mobile money solutions. Subsequent in-depth testing and research in Asia have validated our suspicions. Consequently, we're now gearing up for the next phase of our journey to address this flaw. Prototypes have demonstrated its technical feasibility, and a proof of concept conducted in a remote Asian village has affirmed its human viability. Our next step involves conducting a larger proof of concept in an Asian community with a population of 200,000.
Pioneer of the idea “Mobile Money” in 2004 won international award (Telenor, Norway), which is now trillion-dollar industry | Author of Economics of Information Biasing, Green The Capitalists
11 个月Yes, 20 years back in 2004 the full-fledged idea of?#mobilemoney?was introduced as "Mobile Money Management (MMM)" by?Grameenphone Ltd?in an international business idea competition in Oslo by?Telenor?and awarded the first-runner prize by the CEO and later?GSMA?chairman?Jon-Fredrik Baksaas. It says "MMM provides freedom to the operators to create services related to money as long as money remains in the electronic transaction layer."?Alliance for Financial Inclusion reports (afi_casestudy_mpesa_en.pdf (afi-global.org)) "The Kenyan M-Pesa mobile telephone banking service was first conceived by Safaricom in 2005. It was launched in March 2007." On the other hand, in 2005,?Grameenphone Ltd?initiated a feasibility study. The term?#mobilemoney?has been used since 2006 (Developing Mobile Money Ecosystems (findevgateway.org)), the same year?Grameenphone Ltd?launched BillPay in Bangladesh after getting refused a banking license by?Bangladesh Bank.