Zambia: Mobile money payments more than double each year since 2015

Telecompaper | The Bank of Zambia (BoZ) has recorded significant growth in mobile money payments.

These posted annual average growth of 126 percent in value since 2015, growing from ZMK2.07 billion (US$113 million) to ZMK49.45 billion (US$2.69 billion) in 2019, the Zambian Business Times reported. The BoZ said that the number of mobile money wallets increased to about 14 million at the end of 2019, of which about a third, or 4.9 million were actively transacting.

Central Bank governor Denny Kalyalya said the digital financial services landscape in Zambia has drastically changed, as the usage of digital channels for the delivery of payments and financial services has grown considerably. The majority of commercial banks have developed and deployed mobile money applications that their customers use to access financial services, and e-money issuers are capitalising on smart and feature phones to offer these services.

Kalyalya said the performance of these other electronic payment streams such electronic fund transfers have equally recorded remarkable growth, with annual average growth of 35 percent in value from ZMK21.83 billion (US$1.19 billion) processed in 2015 to ZMK67.81 billion (US$3.7 billion) in 2019.