The GSMA announced that the number of active Mobile Money accounts worldwide now exceeds 130 million, with more than 100 million new registered users added in 2015. Here are some Highlights from the GSMA’s 2015 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Financial Services
- 1 billion Mobile Money transactions in December 2015
At around 33 million per day, that’s more than double the amount PayPal processed globally. - 134 million active Mobile Money users by December 2015 (103m in December 2014)
That’s equivalent to more than three quarters of PayPal’s reported 173 million users - 411 million registered Mobile Money users
There are at least 19 countries with more Mobile Money accounts than bank accounts - 30 services with more than 1 million active users
5 of those services actually have more than 5 million active users - 271 active services in 93 countries
That’s more than the number of officially recognised currencies in the world, which is 180 - 1 in 3 mobile connections in Sub-Saharan Africa are linked to a Mobile Money account
Even more impressive, Mobile Money penetration in East Africa exceeds 50 per cent
Speaking on the figures, Alix Murphy, Senior Mobile Analyst at WorldRemit, said: “The rapid international expansion of Mobile Money services in 2015 demonstrates the increasingly crucial role that these services are playing in cross-border remittances. By connecting directly to mobile wallets, we are making sending money as easy as sending an instant message.”
“Many of our Mobile Money partners are thinking creatively about building a broad ecosystem of Mobile Money as a local payments platform. Cash is increasingly becoming obsolete as emerging markets sprint ahead in the adoption of mobile payments.”
