These African States Excel in Boosting Financial Inclusion among Rural Populations

A report by American research firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that Kenya and Ghana have the second and third highest mobile payment usage in the world, after China. The study, Five Strategies for Mobile-Payment Banking in Africa, found that transactions via mobile wallets and phones were the equivalent of 87% of GDP in Kenya and 82% in Ghana. The World Bank has recognised Ghana as the fastest-growing mobile money market in Africa over the last five years. The report estimates that mobile payments revenue in Africa could rise from $3.5bn today to between $14bn and $20bn in 2025. With their relatively mature mobile payments sectors, Kenya and Ghana account for much of the fintech business in Africa. But both countries have had to leapfrog huge hurdles over the years to emerge as the best in the fintech sphere in Africa, bypassing a number of regulatory and network bottlenecks that threatened to kill innovations in their infancy. Already, 400m consumers in sub-Saharan Africa use mobile payment banking systems to handle $300bn worth of mobile money transactions, generating $200bn in mobile banking fee charges to customers, but Kenya and Ghana control much of these volumes.

SOURCE: AFRICAN BUSINESS