Original Story Published by: Yomi Kazeem for Quartz Africa
Image courtesy of: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters
Rapid mobile adoption in West Africa since the turn of the decade has been a boon for the local mobile money industry.
As the West Africa mobile economy report by GSMA shows, mobile adoption in West Africa has nearly doubled from 28% at the turn of the decade to 47% last year. Indeed, by the end of 2017, there were 176 million unique subscribers across the region’s 15 member states. Just as importantly, by the end of last year, the number of mobile internet subscribers has doubled over the last four years to reach 78 million—nearly half of the total number of mobile subscribers.
That rapid growth has been a boon for financial inclusion, mainly through mobile money. Thanks to expanding agent networks and more enabling regulations, there are now 13 times more active mobile money agents in West Africa than the total number of bank branches and ATMs, the report notes. Paga, a leading mobile money service in Nigeria, boasts a network of nearly 15,000 agents.
Mobile money in West Africa has “evolved beyond in-country peer-to-peer transfers, to international remittances, more complex financial products, and payment platforms for products and services across a wide range of sectors,” the report says.
The industry’s growth in the region has been mainly driven by major telecoms companies, including Airtel, MTN and Orange who are looking to replicate Safaricom’s success in East Africa. Last year, Orange deepened its play for the region’s mobile money market and launched its financial services brand in Burkina Faso and, in 2016, it received licenses to set up autonomous mobile money subsidiaries in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Senegal.
To read the full article, visit Quartz Africa.
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