THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

The State of the

Industry Report
on Mobile Money
2024

Copyright © 2024 GSM Association

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 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Mobile Money

The GSMA is a global organisation unifying the The GSMA Mobile Money programme works to
mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver accelerate the development of the mobile money
innovation foundational to positive business ecosystem for the underserved.
environments and societal change. Our vision is
to unlock the full power of connectivity so that For more information, please contact us:
people, industry and society thrive. Representing
mobile operators and organisations across the Web: www.gsma.com/mobilemoney
mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the Social media: @GSMAMobileMoney
GSMA delivers for its members across three broad Email: mobilemoney@gsma.com
pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services
and Solutions and Outreach. This activity includes
advancing policy, tackling today’s biggest societal
challenges, underpinning the technology and
interoperability that make mobile work and providing
the world’s largest platform to convene the mobile
ecosystem at the MWC and M360 series of events.
THE MOBILE MONEY PROGRAMME IS SUPPORTED
We invite you to find out more at gsma.com BY THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION.

Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA

Authors
The State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2024 was prepared by the GSMA Mobile Money
programme’s Data & Insights team. The team comprised Rishi Raithatha and Gianluca Storchi.

Marketing support was provided by Ana Forjaz and Vincent Keung. Project management support was
provided by Duncan Ramsbotham.

Contributors
Anna Colquhoun, Ashley Olson Onyango, Christopher Lowe, Daniele Tricarico, George Bauer, Isabelle Carboni,
Kara Norton, Lisa Chassin, Mary Gichuki, Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, Nadia Jeffrie, Nigham Shahid, Panos Loukos,
Rebecca Spriggs, Winnie Wambugu and Zach White.

External contributors
Vibhor Jain (independent consultant), Aramé Awanis (independent consultant), Leslie Arathoon (independent
consultant), Leora Klapper (World Bank), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Banque Centrale
des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO).

The State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2024 is based on data collected from the Global Adoption
Survey 2023 and the 2023 GSMA Consumer Survey.

For more content and data, visit gsma.com/sotir

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THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Foreword from Mats Granryd

Director General of the GSMA and a Member of the Board

For over two decades mobile money services Today millions of users are making or receiving
have grown exponentially, driving financial payments, taking out productive credit to
inclusion for billions of people, opening up meet short-term financing needs, paying for
incredible opportunities for entrepreneurs and government services or accessing savings and
small businesses across the world. Today, 1.75 insurance products to protect themselves from
billion registered accounts are processing $1.4 shocks.
trillion a year, or about $2.7 million a minute.
Truly remarkable numbers. Over the past 10 years we have seen incredible
growth across the industry, but perhaps even
Over the years, Sub-Saharan Africa has been a more exciting than this are the opportunities
key driver of mobile money’s success, home to that lie ahead as the ecosystem continues to
almost three-quarters of the world’s accounts. In mature. As you read this report, I trust you will
the past 10 years, West Africa has emerged as a be encouraged by the growth of the industry so
key player with the number of registered mobile far, and inspired by the incredible potential that
money accounts doubling between 2013 and it holds as we work to drive financial inclusion
2023, driven mostly by growth in Nigeria, Ghana and build stronger more resilient economies
and Senegal. across the world.

As the industry continues to grow, we see it

maturing. In the 10 years to 2022, mobile money Mats Granryd
contributed $600 billion to the GDP of countries Director General, GSMA
with a mobile money service.

Use cases are also evolving as mobile money

users shift away from basic transactions to
more varied services. International remittances
are now one of the fastest growing use cases
of mobile money, while merchant payments
expanded by 14% to almost $74 billion in 2023.
Average revenue per user also increased by
40% between September 2022 and June 2023,
despite slowing account and transaction growth
rates. This clearly demonstrates the commercial
potential of mobile financial services.

Of course, mobile money also 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).

As mobile money continues to grow and evolve,

it opens up even more opportunities for citizens,
businesses and economies across the world.

This report was prepared by the GSMA’s Mobile Money programme in collaboration with the mobile money industry,
and with the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 3
 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Editorial
Every year, the team behind the State of the For a few years, we have highlighted West
Industry Report (SOTIR) is challenged – both Africa’s evolution as one of the industry’s drivers
internally and externally – on what new angle – if not the main one. This year, we decided to
or analysis we plan to pursue. Internally, we include a few stories from the region on what
are helped by a growing industry database: has supported the growth of mobile money
having over ten years of data has enabled us there. Regulation has played an important role
to demonstrate that mobile money truly is an for many countries in the region. We briefly
African success story. explored how this has impacted the West
Africa Economic and Monetary Union, while
also showcasing what impact the rising number
of mobile money services has had on financial
While this year’s report inclusion in Nigeria.

shows that Sub-Saharan Keeping track of the number of mobile money

services worldwide is an important activity,
Africa has the highest one which the team monitors all year round.
In 2023, we audited and refreshed our Mobile
levels of global mobile Money Deployment Tracker to ensure that all
providers listed there met our definition of a
money adoption, mobile mobile money service. Through this, we were
pleasantly surprised to find that the number
money had increased of mobile money services had grown slightly –
from 309 in 2022 and 310 and 2023. We see this
gross domestic product as a sign that the industry is starting to mature,
a fact we believe is supported by the slowdown
in the region by more in registered and active account growth in 2023.

than $150 billion or 3.7% Since its inception, each SOTIR has reported
faster growth across a range of mobile money
between 2013 and 2022. indicators than the previous year. In 2023,
mobile money adoption and use continued to
expand, but at a slower pace. We believe this
Externally, we invited the World Bank to marks a natural transition in the industry away
contribute to last year’s report (SOTIR 2023). from exponential growth and towards more
This experiment worked well: many readers gradual expansion. As mobile money is further
we spoke to liked this type of collaboration, integrated into the daily lives of millions, we
where peers covering the same space could expect to see more money flow through the
work together. Similar organisations asked if we wallet of a typical user – spread across more
might welcome their contributions. This gave transactions of slightly lower value.
us the confidence to continue innovating – as
the industry continues to evolve, the report As the industry begins to mature, the impact
that covers it should too. We’re delighted to of the COVID-19 pandemic still lingers. In last
include contributions from the World Bank, year’s SOTIR, we compared forecasts produced
the International Finance Corporation and in 2019 to actual data we received in 2022.
the Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de This analysis found that in 2022, there were
l’Ouest (the Central Bank of West Africa States 300 million more registered accounts than our
– BCEAO). 2019 forecasts had suggested there would be.

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THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Some of this could have been due to the impact

of the pandemic. In 2023, we carried out the
same type of analysis on transaction values
and volumes. We found that both transaction
volumes and values started surpassing our 2019
forecasts in 2021. By 2023, transaction volumes
were nearly two-thirds higher than forecast,
while transaction values were over a third higher
than forecast.

Finally, a popular activity among the team is

to follow the industry’s progress and highlight
the most prominent stories in SOTIR. Most
of our monitoring showed that the industry
is innovating and developing strategic
partnerships – especially to provide adjacent
services. For instance, several mobile-enabled
insurance services have been launched in
partnership with mobile money providers, as
well as some savings and microloan services.
These industry developments complement our
data analysis well, showing mobile money’s
value beyond rising numbers.

Rishi Raithatha & Gianluca Storchi

Image credit: Freepik.com 5

 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Executive Summary
Between 2013 and 2022, the total gross In 2023, mobile money transaction volumes
domestic product (GDP) in countries with grew faster than transaction values – leading
a mobile money service was $600 billion to a drop in average transaction values.
higher than it would have been without mobile Transaction values grew year-on-year by 14%,
money. lower than the 22% increase seen in 2022.
This is the equivalent of mobile money Similarly, transaction volumes grew at a slower
increasing GDP by around 1.5% over the same rate in 2023 (23%) compared to 2022 (27%).
period. Beyond contributing to financial and However, transaction volumes grew faster than
digital inclusion, increasing mobile money use transaction values. Mobile money is now used
has led to higher GDP – particularly among more frequently albeit for smaller transaction
countries in East and West Africa. sizes across almost all use cases. Much of the
higher-value transactions occurred during the
Mobile money adoption and active use height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the
continued to grow but at a slower rate than in demand for digital transactions was very high.
previous years.
Registered accounts grew to 1.75 billion in 2023, International remittances and merchant
a 12% year-on-year increase. However, this is a payments were among the fastest-growing
lower annual growth rate than the 15% seen in mobile money use cases in 2023.
2022 and 19% seen in 2021. Accounts active on a Transaction values for international remittances
monthly basis also grew at a slow year-on-year grew to almost $29 billion, a one-third increase
rate. By the end of 2023, there were around 435 compared to 2022. Much of this growth was
million active mobile money accounts – a 9% driven by West Africa. Merchant payments grew
annual rise, compared to 13% in 2022 and 15% in by 14%, reaching around $74 billion in 2023.
2021. Many customers now use mobile money to pay
for goods and services: in 2019, one in every
Agent networks continued to grow, driven by ten dollars circulating in the mobile money
increased agents in Sub-Saharan Africa. ecosystem was spent on merchant payments; in
Compared to 2022, registered agents grew by 2023, this grew to two in every ten dollars.
22% in 2023 to reach 18.6 million, while active
agents grew by 14% to 8.3 million. These agents Interoperable transactions continued to rise,
were responsible for digitising more than two- despite a slowdown in growth between 2022
thirds of all the money entering the mobile and 2023.
money ecosystem: $307 billion in 2023, 12% Collectively, bank-to-mobile and mobile-to-
higher than the previous year. bank transactions grew by 15% year-on-year
to $210 billion in 2023. Many mobile money
Over the past few years, West Africa has users are making interoperable transactions
emerged as mobile money’s new powerhouse. more frequently, which has led to lower average
In 2023, over a third of new registered and transaction values. This is due to mobile money
active 30-day accounts globally were from West providers being connected to an average of 27
Africa. This was more than any other region with banks – around 50% more than the previous
Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal the main drivers year.
of growth. West Africa’s vibrant mobile money
ecosystem has developed differently from East Some use cases shrank for the first time:
Africa. For instance, West Africa has seen more transaction values for both bill payments and
non-mobile-network-operator (MNO)-led mobile bulk disbursements dropped in 2023.
money services emerge to compete with MNO- Bill payment transaction values fell by 11% to
led providers. $75 billion, while bulk disbursement values

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THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

dropped by 1% to $83.6 billion. Despite this, money levies were introduced. Lower resulting
both use cases saw higher transaction volumes: mobile money transactions led to a reduction
between 2022 and 2023, bill payments grew by in tax revenue. Tanzania eliminated the levy
23%, while bulk disbursement volumes grew in on mobile money transfers in June 2023,
2023 by 10%. Both these trends were heavily while Ghana reduced the levy on electronic
influenced by regulatory changes in Kenya, transactions in January 2023.
where bank-to-wallet transaction charges were
reintroduced. Among a subset of countries surveyed, a
mobile money gender gap exists in all – except
More mobile money providers are offering Kenya where mobile money adoption is almost
more adjacent financial services, such as universal.
credit, savings and insurance, compared to The gender gap is widest in Pakistan (71%)
2022. among the countries surveyed, followed by India
In 2023, nearly half of all Global Adoption (56%), Bangladesh (56%) and Nigeria (46%).
Survey respondents offer responsible credit Mobile money ownership among women in
– compared to just over 40% in 2022. During Bangladesh has stagnated, despite an increase
the same period, the number of mobile money in women’s awareness of mobile money in the
services offering savings grew from 39% in 2022 country. In Senegal, around 30% of women still
to 44% in 2023. Several mobile money providers do not have a mobile money account – despite
are beginning to offer microinsurance: 23% of near-universal adoption among men.
services offered insurance in 2023, compared to
14% in 2022. While insurance is the least offered As a key enabler of the United Nations’
adjacent service, it grew the fastest. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
mobile money now contributes to 15 SDGs – up
Mobile money has enabled more women to from 13 in 2019.
save money than other financial services. Mobile money now contributes to SDG 11 –
For instance, in Senegal, only 6% of women Sustainable cities and communities, as well
saved using a traditional bank or other financial as to SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and
account in 2021; around four times more women production. While mobile money remains a
chose mobile money to save. Kenya, Uganda driver towards achieving the SDGs, it continues
and Zambia saw similar trends, where the share to impact millions of people in their daily lives.
of women using mobile money accounts to save Many mobile money users are now able to
money was more than double that of women access productive services that were previously
using bank or other financial accounts. inaccessible.

Many mobile money providers have seen an

increase in average revenue per user – from
$2.2 in September 2022 to $3.2 in June 2023 –
leading to higher profitability.
Overall revenues among Global Adoption
Survey respondents grew by around 25% over
the same period. Mobile money providers have
become increasingly profitable: by 2023, nearly
three-quarters of survey respondents had
positive earnings.

Taxation remains an important regulatory

challenge for many mobile money services,
though some countries are beginning to
abolish mobile money taxes.
Mobile money taxation is a convenient revenue-
earning opportunity for many governments in
Sub-Saharan Africa. However, both Ghana and
Tanzania have experienced the negative effects
of taxing mobile money transactions: mobile
money users began to use cash after mobile

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 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Mobile money in 2023

Registered mobile Value of transactions
money accounts

1.75 bn $1.40 tn
Year-on-year
growth rate
+12% Year-on-year
growth rate
+14%
Active 30-day accounts Active agents

435 m 8.3 m
Year-on-year
growth rate
+9% Year-on-year
growth rate
+14%
Merchant payments International remittances
processed per year processed per year

$74 bn $29bn
Year-on-year
growth rate
+14% Year-on-year
growth rate
+33%
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 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

2023 Global overview

Registered mobile Active 90-day Active 30-day
Accounts

money accounts accounts accounts

1.75 bn 642 m 435 m

+12% +11% +9%
Transactions Agents

Transaction volume Transaction value ($) Registered Active

85 bn $1.4 tn 18.6 m 8.3 m

+23% +14% +22% +14%
Monthly value snapshot - December 2023
Digital In
Bulk disbursements 6%
Bank-to-mobile 7%
Incoming international remittances 2%
Digital In

18% 15%
Cash Out
Circulating
Merchant payments 5%
Cash In
Person-to-person on-net 21%
22% 27%
Circulating

Digital Out 19% Digital Out

Person-to-person off-net 4%
Airtime top-ups 1%
Bill payments 5%
Mobile-to-bank 8%
Outgoing international remittances 1%

*Note: here and throughout this report, numbers may not add up to their respective totals due to rounding errors.

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 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Regional growth in 2023

Active
Live Registered Transaction Transaction
Region (30-day)
services accounts volume value ($)
accounts

310 1.75 bn 435 m 85 bn 1.4 tn

Global
+ 12% + 9% + 23% + 14%

Sub-Saharan 156 835 m 234 m 62 bn 912 bn

Africa + 19% + 12% + 28% + 12%

South Asia 36 401 m 89 m 12 bn 214 bn

+ 11% + 8% + 13% + 17%

East Asia 52 374 m 77 m 9 bn 196 bn

and Pacific
+ 3% + 6% + 10% + 14%

Latin America
29 48 m 19 m 1 bn 38 bn
and the
Caribbean
- 13% - 13% + 6% + 11%

Middle East
30 71 m 9m 719 m 30 bn
and North
Africa
+ 10% + 41% + 57% + 40%

Europe and
Central Asia 7 26 m 6m 391 m 7 bn
+ 8% + 11% + 13% + 14%

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THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

Growth in Africa in 2023

Live Registered Active Transaction Transaction
services accounts (30-day) accounts volume value ($)

169 856 m 237 m 62 bn 919 bn

+ 19 %
+ 13
%
+ 28 %
+ 12%

West Africa
North Africa
Live services 68
Registered accounts 356 m +23% Live services 13
Active (30-day) accounts 84 m +19% Registered accounts 20 m +17%
Transaction volume 19 bn +40% Active (30-day) accounts 2m +54%
Transaction value ($) 347 bn +40% Transaction volume 150 m +44%
Transaction value ($) 7 bn +48%

Central Africa

Live services 20
Registered accounts 83 m +19%
Active (30-day) accounts 28 m +18%
Transaction volume 5 bn +25%
Transaction value ($) 72 bn +19%

Southern Africa East Africa

Live services 15 Live services 53

Registered accounts 23 m +19% Registered accounts 372 m +16%
Active (30-day) accounts 5m +7% Active (30-day) accounts 118 m +7%
Transaction volume 592 m +10% Transaction volume 38 bn +23%
Transaction value ($) 6 bn +2% Transaction value ($) 488 bn -2%

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 THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT ON MOBILE MONEY 2024

For more information, please

visit the GSMA website

gsma.com/sotir

GSMA HEAD OFFICE

1 Angel Lane
London
EC4R 3AB
United Kingdom
info@gsma.com

12 Cover page image credit: Freepik.com