BY EMEKA AGINAM, in Barcelona, Spain
Fueled by broadband penetration, positive regulatory reforms that are enabling mobile money services latest reports by GSMA’s Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme yesterday released its third annual Mobile Financial Services State of the Industry.

The MMU 2013 Mobile Financial Services State of the Industry Report highlighted that an increasing number of providers are overcoming operational challenges to create solid distribution networks and a large base of active customers.
money, mobile insurance, mobile credit and savings.

The MMU 2013 State of the Industry Report contains data from both the MMU Deployment Tracker, which monitors the number of live and planned mobile money services for the unbanked across the globe.

The report also includes data from the MMU 2013 Global Adoption Survey of Mobile Financial Services, which had a total of 110 participants across 56 countries.
According to Tom Phillips, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA, “This annual report underscores the enormous impact that mobile money is having in emerging markets, by providing access to increasing numbers of products and services and helping millions of people to manage their daily lives and improve their livelihoods,” said Tom Phillips, Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA.

“Each year our review reveals greater insights on the wide range of uses of mobile money and on how operators are working collaboratively in developing mobile money services to meet growing customer demand.”

According to Philips, “As the mobile money industry grows, we are seeing how these services are benefiting the lives of millions of citizens in developing countries all around the world. We will continue to track these tremendous developments and work with mobile operators and the broader ecosystem to expand the scope of services available and to extend services to more of the world’s population.”

The report shows that the number of active mobile money users have continued to grow rapidly year-on-year, with more than 61 million accounts active as of June 2013, compared to 37 million in June 2012.

According to the report, the number of registered mobile money accounts nearly tripled from 71 million in June 2011 to 203 million in June 2013.

Services, according to the report, have expanded across a greater number of regions, with 219 services in 84 countries at the end of 2013, compared to 179 services in 75 countries at the end of 2012.

Although the majority of services remain in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 52 per cent of all live mobile money deployments located in the region, the services, the report revealed is also expanding outside of the region, with, for example, 19 mobile money launches planned in Latin America.

.The increased number of mobile money users and access points, the report revealed illustrated the important role of mobile financial services in driving financial inclusion in developing countries.

At the end of 2013, nine markets, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, according to the report already had more mobile money accounts than bank accounts, compared to just four markets last year.

These markets, GSMA reports revealed that the mobile money industry has made financial services accessible to more people than the traditional banking industry.

The development of other mobile financial services, including 123 mobile insurance, mobile credit and savings services, 27 of which were launched in 2013, GSMA report noted will allow service providers to deepen financial inclusion by offering financial services beyond money transfer and payments.

While mobile money becomes a mainstream product for a growing number of operators, competition, the report added was also increasing.

Meanwhile, at the end of 2013, 52 markets, GSMA revealed had two or more mobile money services compared to 40 in 2012.