Mobile Payments Drives Digital Economy in West Africa

According to a report on electronic payments released by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) in August 2024, digital payments are making good progress in the region. Several countries in the region have put in place a #digitalzation strategy and roadmap.

Cash withdrawals via ATM form the most common type of transactions with FCFA 632 billion, or 88% of total exchanges. Digital payments via bank cards, mobile wallet, and other online payment gateways amounted to FCFA 78 billion, or 10.9% of transactions. Cash advances via credit cards only made up 1% of total transaction volume with a amount f FCFA 362 million in 2023.

8,004,173 bank cards are in circulation in the West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) with 6,338,017 linked to a bank account. Most cards are still based on the IC technology but take up of NFC no-touch card is ramping up. On the other hand, cards with magnetic stripes are gradually getting phased out.

The most popular card in WAEMU is the Visa card followed by the GIM card. The Interbank Group for Electronic Payment (GIM-UEMOA) also has a partnership with Mastercard to issue cards under that logo.

As a case in point, Togo registered 7,85 billion digital transactions totaling FCFA 711 billion. Benin has also expressed high ambitions to democratize broadband access by 2025 through the allocation of a sizeable budget of FCFA 16.4 billion. Over the past few years, Cote d’Ivoire has been hosting the annual African Digital Week to promote the #DigitalTransformaton agenda in Africa.

On the private sector side, MTN (JSE:MTN) is executing its #Ambition2025 strategy to become the prime digital services provider across Africa. As part the #DigitalTransformation drive, MTN has partnered with Tecnotree to offer innovative cloud-based services enabled by 5G or fixed broadband in five key markets, namely, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, eSwatini, South Sudan and Zambia.