The mobile financial services sector in Africa is poised to grow significantly in the next four years, with person-to-business (P2B) transactions in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa poised to hit the $900 billion mark by 2018, say experts.

Mobile money platforms have taken off phenomenally, particularly in East Africa, but also in the South in countries like Zimbabwe. All have registered a surge in mobile money transaction volumes.

However, experts at Mondato, a global mobile money consultancy company, say the sector is still limited to person-to-person transactions (P2P), yet there is significant room for raising wallet-to-bank and bank-to-bank transactions using mobile money platforms.

"The signs of growth in other areas such as merchant payments (P2B or B2B), while slow, have been encouraging."

Mondato said in its research report released this week that P2P mobile financial transaction remittances "remain an important driver of consumer adoption in many markets". However, recent trends show that "Africa is moving out of phase one of the MFS and digital finance revolution".

The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a global partnership of 34 leading organisations that seek to advance financial inclusion, recently widened its emphasis from digital finance to 'Digital Finance Plus', which encompasses "the use of mobile money and branchless banking to make basic, essential services and utilities".

These include energy, health, education, and water among others. "In total P2B transactions across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Tanzania are likely to grow by over 40% up to 2018, from US$640 billion in 2013 to over US$900 billion," said Mondato in its report.

The report adds that the outlook for the growth of the mobile money industry in Africa "is encouraging."

The market for P2B mobile-initiated transactions in the five countries above predicted "to grow nearly tenfold over the next four years, from US$2.9 billion in 2013 to almost US$28 billion in 2018".