GSMA: Mobile money ‘changing landscape of financial inclusion’

The fifth annual ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’ of the GSM Association (GSMA) has revealed how mobile money is changing the landscape of financial inclusion.

With 271 services in 93 countries, mobile money is now available in 85 per cent of markets where less than 20 per cent of the population have an account at a formal financial institution, the GSMA report says.

“Mobile money is driving social and economic impact for millions of people in emerging markets,” John Giusti, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA says. “Over the last decade, mobile money has done more to extend the reach of financial services than traditional bricks and mortar banking were able to do over the last century. With 411 million mobile money accounts today, mobile is an increasingly critical platform for expanding financial inclusion globally.”

The report shows that the number of active mobile money users is growing rapidly year-on-year. As of December 2015, there were more than 134 million accounts active, with 30 services having more than one million active accounts and seven services with more than four million. Mobile network operators continue to play a leading role in delivering mobile money and expanding financial inclusion.

One of the key findings of the 2015 report is that Sub-Saharan Africa continues to account for the majority of live mobile money services but more than half of the new services launched in 2015 were outside this region, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. Looking ahead, new mobile money services are expected to grow by as much as 50 per cent in Europe and Central Asia, as well as the Middle East and North Africa, demonstrating the significant traction that mobile money is gaining globally.

The fifth annual ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’ report provides a quantitative assessment of the industry, drawing on the results of the annual GSMA Global Adoption Survey of Mobile Financial Services, data from the GSMA Mobile Money Deployment Tracker and insights on mobile money performance from the GSMA’s engagement with the industry over the last year.