The number of active mobile money accounts globally now exceeds 130 million, with over 100 million new registered users added in 2015.
This is according to the GSMA's 2015 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Financial Services, which revealed, among other statistics, that there were 1 billion mobile money transactions in December 2015 (approximately 33 million per day), and 411 million registered mobile money users (with at least 19 countries with more mobile money accounts than bank accounts.)
In terms of service delivery and platforms in this space, the Report also showed that last year there were 30 services with more than 1 million active users and 271 active services in 93 countries.
"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 percent," stated GSMA.
The mobile money and remittance space in Africa has witnessed growth – and in 2015 several companies announced their strategies to capitalise on market growth, despite concerns of the emergence of a remittance super-racket and of anti-competitive behaviour.
The prediction is this year will see a strong adoption of merchant payments and international remittances.
Alix Murphy, Senior Mobile Analyst at WorldRemit and co-author of the GSMA 2014 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Financial Services report, 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," Murphy added.
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