2 minute read
of purposes beyond person-to-person payments
Mobile money accounts in Sub-Saharan Africa are used for more than person-to-person payments
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 33 percent of adults have a mobile money account (figure 2.4.7). Of those who have such an account, two in three (68 percent) received a payment into their mobile money account. This share included about half of mobile money account owners who received a domestic remittance payment, 22 percent who received a wage payment, 13 percent who received a payment for the sale of agricultural products, and 8 percent who received a government transfer or pension payment. Virtually all mobile money account owners (98 percent) made a digital payment. This share included almost half who made a domestic remittance payment from an account, 37 percent who used a mobile phone or the internet to make a bill payment, about 30 percent who made a digital merchant payment, and about 30 percent who paid a utility bill directly from an account. Just over half of adults with a mobile money account used it to store money. About 40 percent reported having saved money using their mobile money account, and 20 percent borrowed money using their mobile money account.
FIGURE 2.4.7 In Sub-Saharan Africa, adults with a mobile money account used it for a range of purposes beyond person-to-person payments
INFLOWS USAGES
33%
of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa have a mobile money account Borrowed formally 20%
Saved formally 39%
Domestic remittances 52%
Private or public sector wages 22% Sale of agricultural products 13% Government transfers or pensions 8%
55%
of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa have an account
Source: Global Findex Database 2021. Note: Inflows and usages are shown as percentages of the 33 percent of adults with a mobile money account. Stored money using an account 53%
Made digital payment(s) 98%
The fact that a large share of mobile money account owners in Sub-Saharan Africa used their account for domestic remittance payments should come as no surprise. When the mobile money operator M-PESA launched its business in Kenya in 2007, it specifically targeted the domestic remittance market, promoting its services with the slogan “Send money home.” As mobile money accounts spread across Sub-Saharan Africa, their use for domestic remittance payments also expanded, as well as their use for other types of payments. In 2021, about three in four (74 percent, or 25 percent of all adults) mobile account owners used their mobile money account to make or receive at least one payment that was not person-to-person. By contrast, just 18 percent (6 percent of adults) used their mobile money account only to send or receive person-to-person payments, and 7 percent (2 percent of adults) used their mobile money account only to make or receive an unspecified type of payment.33
33. Person-to-person payment is defined as sending or receiving a domestic remittance payment or sending money to a relative or friend using a mobile phone or the internet.
