Africa Leads the World in Mobile Money According to GSMA Report 2025

On 8 April 2025, the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) released its annual report on the ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2025’. According to the Report, registered mobile money account surpassed the 2 billion mark during 2024, of which more than 500 million subscribers are active users. It took 18 years to reach one billion registered users, but only 5 years for the pool to double to two billion.

In terms of transaction, 2024 recorded 108 billion transactions, a strong increase of 20% year-on-year. The total transaction value was USD 1.68 trillion, representing a 16% increase year-on-year.

Africa accounted for 81.8 billion #MobileMoney transactions, representing 74% of the global total of 108.4 billion. The monetary value of these transactions exceeded USD 1.1 trillion, accounting for 65% of the global transaction value of USD 1.68 trillion in 2024.

From a regional perspective, Africa leads the world in terms of Mobile Money adoption. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) alone has 1.1 billion users, which is more than half of the total. The leadership of Africa in the #FinTech space is not surprising, considering that mPesa was the pioneer in Mobile Money in Kenya and East Africa continues to lead Mobile Money usage, contributing 60% of the total transaction value on the continent.

There are 336 Mobile Money service providers around the world, and 165 operate in sub-Saharan Africa. The prevalence of Mobile Money services can also be explained as traditional banking has not taken off in SSA.

In order to create new revenue streams, the Mobile Money service providers are offering savings, credit and insurance services. Some even offer investment options in stock markets to the more sophisticated users. However, financial literacy and gender equity remain a challenge in certain countries. To address this, the service providers have initiated digital financial literacy initiatives.