Browsing: mobile payments in Africa

By the time Safaricom launched M-Pesa payments in 2007, the market for digital payment in Africa was barely scratched. With poor internet connections, defragmented payments systems, and a non-existent online-based customer base, the continent was in darkness.

In 2006—prior to the launch of M-PESA, the leading local mobile money transfer service—only 18.5 percent of Kenyans used formal services (i.e., mostly bank accounts), 8.1 percent used semi-formal services (such as those provided by microfinance institutions), 35.0 percent used the informal sector (rotating savings and credit associations), and no less than 38.3 percent were completely excluded.

A decade later, the industry has expanded rapidly, giving birth to new entrants who have pushed the worth of this sector to billions of dollars and other billions exchanged through various platforms. These include the use of mobile money, credit cards, virtual cards, instant bank transfers, and QR codes.

The global digital payments market size is …