Mobile money services have exceeded industry expectations, with transactions reaching a value of $1.26 trillion in 2022, according to the GSMA’s ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023’.
Published annually by the GSMA and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the report shows that registered accounts, transaction values, and deployments have all exceeded predictions.
The number of registered mobile money accounts increased by 13% year-on-year from 1.4 billion in 2021 to 1.6 billion in 2022. In 2022, daily transactions via mobile money exceeded $3.45 billion, and the total transaction value for mobile money grew by 22% between 2021 and 2022.
However, there is still work to be done to give underserved communities access to affordable financial services. The report shows that 1.4 billion people worldwide remain unbanked, and the GSMA Mobile Money Programme is working with mobile operators and industry stakeholders worldwide to create a robust mobile money ecosystem.
The report also shows that there are now 315 live mobile money deployments worldwide, with peer-to-peer transfers and cash-in/cash-out transactions still among the most popular use cases.
Bill payments using mobile money grew by 36% year-on-year, faster than any other use case, and the industry continues to focus on use case diversification, playing an important role in digitizing economies.
Mobile money services have continued to show resilient growth that was instigated during the pandemic. Up to 400 million accounts were added during the pandemic alone, largely due to the technology’s role in enabling millions of people across low- and middle-income countries to access digital financial services.
The report shows that, during 2022, mobile money-enabled international remittances grew by 28% year-on-year to $22 billion.
Mobile money is continuing to drive financial inclusion for the world’s unbanked, particularly among women in rural communities. However, according to the latest GSMA data, there is still a mobile money gender gap that has shown signs of widening over the last year, particularly in India, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
The number of mobile money agents also increased significantly last year, with a 41% increase between 2021 and 2022. The overall number of agents went from 12 million in 2021 to 17.4 million in 2022.
