Development
How Mobile Money Grew in Sub-Saharan A By Kristin Houser
TWO OF AFRICA’S BIGGEST STARTUP stories of 2021 involve the billion-dollar valuations accorded to OPay, and Wave. Propelled by Chinese and American venture capital, each rose rapidly to own large shares of the financial services sector in Nigeria and Senegal respectively, primarily because of their sprawling mobile money operations. But Opay and Wave are just two among many companies behind sub-Saharan Africa’s mobile money push, underpinning an ecosystem that generates $13 billion a month in transaction value, the most of any region in the world.
Africa’s mobile money rise According to the GSM Association (GSMA)—an Saharan Africa. industry organization that represents the interests But before 2011, references to mobile money of mobile network operators worldwide—64% of on the continent were about M-Pesa, Safaricom’s the $2.1 billion transacted daily through mobile pioneering service in Kenya in 2007. Orange, money platforms in 2020 happened in sub- Airtel, and MTN followed suit with their own
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November-December 2021
DAWN
www.africabusinessassociation.org
