Staff writer
Kenya and Ghana lead in mobile bank transactions in Africa and only second to China in the world according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The mobile wallet transactions in Kenya are 87% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while in Ghana, 82%.
Ghana has led the growth rate of mobile money market in Africa for the last 5 years, according to the World Bank.
The roots of mobile banking trace back to the east African nation in 2007, SAFARICOM (a Kenya mobile network company).
Kenyans were using prepaid mobile airtime as currency, and that sparked the genesis of digital currency as a viable way for money transactions.
SAFARICOM executives with the assistance of a loan from a UK company launched M-PESA, (M, for mobile & PESA – Swahili word for money).
The company expanded it’s offerings beyond the inefficient telecommunications services and ventured into financial services.
A wider array of mobile financial services take place in the east and west, not Africa. A major reason is the limiting breath of services available in the continent in spite of the impressive penetration.
The future estimates of mobile payments revenue in Africa is very bright and could rise from $3.5bn today to between $14bn and $20bn by 2025 according to the report.
