Mobile money systems have already undergone significant work to close huge gaps across various financial ecosystems for many of the 1.5 billion people who remain unbanked across global emerging and developing markets. Now, new research predicts the space to grow exponentially.
Mobile money spend in emerging markets is predicted to reach $2.37trillion by 2029, from $1.58trillion in 2024 – representing growth of 51 per cent – according to a new study from Juniper Research.
The ‘Mobile Money in Emerging Markets‘ report predicts operators will drive this growth as they expand their portfolios to include higher-margin advanced services, such as powering merchant payments in-store or via e-commerce, or providing international remittances.
A recent Ericsson and Juniper Research survey also indicated that mobile network operators will see a massive increase in the number of mobile financial service users in the next five years, increasing from 29 per cent to 40 per cent.
Mobile money has already supported the betterment of financial inclusion across the globe, with the likes of M-PESA having already enjoyed significant success. The service, which originally offered money transfers conducted using existing airtime infrastructure without requiring a bank account, has continued to grow following partnerships with banks, MNOs, fintechs, and e-commerce providers.
Mélissa Amouny, research co-author
“As banks struggle with the distribution of financial services in emerging markets and mobile money services have excellent reach via their agent networks, partnerships between banks and mobile money services are a strong fit,” explained Mélissa Amouny, research co-author. “MFS providers must strike partnerships with banks to offer the capabilities needed, and with platform providers to improve their technical infrastructures, to best address the advanced services opportunity.”
By offering more advanced services, mobile financial service providers can reduce their reliance on revenue from P2P transactions. This shift will require mobile money providers to build new capabilities, such as app-based service delivery and credit scoring.
Juniper explained that it expects partnerships to remain vital for the growth of this sector, as MM providers face major challenges in offering advanced services at scale.
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