NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

The majority of the two billion people in the world who remain unbanked and locked out of access to safe, secure and affordable financial services are in developing economies, the majority in Africa.

This is why the quick roll-out and uptake of mobile money on the continent has been hailed— at least 40 African countries have at least one form of mobile money service, giving more people options to transform their personal circumstances, and pushing economic growth.

In 2011, some 24% of African adults had a mobile money account; in 2014 this share jumped to 34%, cementing the region’s status as the global mobile money epicentre—while just 2% of adults worldwide have a mobile money account, 12% in Sub-Saharan Africa has one at the end of that year, according to the World Bank. Significantly, just half of these Africans had an account at a formal financial institution.