MWC: 100m now use mobile money

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, the GSMA announced that the number of active Mobile Money accounts globally now exceeds 100 million. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for more than half (53%) of the world’s live mobile money services.

Ismail Ahmed, CEO of WorldRemit, a provider of remittances to mobile wallets, said: “The rapid growth of Mobile Money services represents one of the biggest enlargements of participation in the global financial system, ever. “Many of our Mobile Money partners also offer insurance products, education and healthcare bill payments, and savings schemes. Cash is increasingly becoming an obsolete technology as the developing world sprints ahead of the developed in its adoption of Mobile Money.” Highlights form the GSMA’s 2014 Mobile Financial Services for the Unbanked report: ¬∑ 103 million active Mobile Money users globally by December 2014 (2013 figure was 60 million) ¬∑ 299 million registered mobile money users ¬∑ 21 services have more than 1 million active users ¬∑ 255 active services by December 2014 (currently 259) ¬∑ International remittances are highlighted as one of the main sources of incoming funds to Mobile Money ¬∑ New regulations in issued in Kenya & Liberia ¬∑ 53% of live services in Sub-Saharan Africa ¬∑ “2014 saw a steep increase in the number of international remittances via mobile money, primarily driven by the introduction of a new model using mobile money as both the sending and receiving channel.

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