Countries in the West African region are lagging behind their East African peers in terms of adoption, development and usage of mobile money platforms, experts said this week.

East Africa has recorded significant growth and uptake of mobile money platforms, largely propelled by expanding usage in Kenya and Tanzania among other countries in the region.

However, Mondato, a mobile financial services industry research and advisory company, says in a report that "west African countries have been slow to seize the opportunity" presented by mobile money.

"Ghana is the regional star pupil, but up to now the ecosystem was confounded by a quixotic regulatory environment. Nigeria ... has a huge addressable market and a large number of mobile money deployments, but low levels of adoption and usage," its report says.

Sierra Leone and Liberia which suffered outbreaks of Ebola last year managed to capitalise on mobile money revolutions and increased usage of such platforms in deploying financial assistance volunteers, aid workers and others involved in the fight against the outbreak of the deadly epidemic.

"Sierra Leone and Liberia have, however, learned from observing the experience of these countries (in west Africa), and just last May Liberia promulgated a new set of mobile money regulations designed to loosen banks' grip on mobile financial services and encourage a market-led growth in the ecosystem, just in time to allow mobile money to play a greater role in the response to the Ebola outbreak."

The report said more than 16 000 Ebola response workers received 'danger money' payments through mobile money in 2014. There is even wider scope for growth in mobile phone usage in the three countries that were affected by Ebola last year, adds Mondato.

"Barely three out of five Guineans or Liberians have a mobile. In Sierra Leone, that number drops below half, and all three countries lie in the lowest docile of the 187 countries ranked on the United Nations' Human Development Index," it said.