Weekly roundup: Digital Trends

Record-breaking Mobile Money payments & remittances

THE digital age has undoubtedly brought new and exciting opportunities for marketers looking to grow sales volumes and exploit avenues to generate higher profits.

One indicator of economic growth and activity is the mobile money platforms increasingly utilised by Zambians. In our recently published industry report, we saw how mobile money transactions more than doubled in monetary terms in the first two months of this year compared to the same period last year, indicating that consumers have permanently shifted their transactional habits to digital platforms. 

According to mobile money payments captured by the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) for January and February, this year, volumes translated to a monetary value of around K10.7 billion and K10.4 billion, respectively, while around K12.7 billion was transacted in March, bringing the first quarter total to approximately K33.9 billion. This compares to K5.9 billion and K5.6 billion in the corresponding first two months of last year, with March’s volumes amounting to K7.1 billion bringing the cumulative first quarter total of mobile payments in the first quarter of 2020 to K18.6 billion.
This trend has continued and mobile money payments have grown exponentially. Updated BoZ data for the period ending June 30, 2021, reveals that mobile money payments hit a record-breaking K76.6 billion in just six months. Data shows that payments only peaked at around K43 billion during the same corresponding period last year. If we put this into perspective, mobile money payments for the six-month period ending June 30, this year, are more than three times the amount recorded for the entire 2018 financial year, which recorded only a cumulative total of K22.2 billion.

Clearly, growth of mobile money usage remains strong, with users of these platforms having peaked to 8.6 million last year from 4.8 million by the end of 2019. Mobile money transactions are presenting more opportunities for all stakeholders in Zambia’s growing digital economy.

And according to ZICTA, the country’s ICT regulator, the total number of active mobile network subscriptions in Zambia increased to 19.7 million by the half-year period ending June 30, 2021, exceeding the country’s population. This is an all-time high, and is growing faster than the country’s population rate for a second successive time since last year.

Zambia’s total estimated population is around 18.4 million this year, up from around 17 million last year.

Remittances on the other hand in terms of funds being sent back to Zambia from abroad, have already hit around K2.2 billion in the six-month period ending June 30 compared to around K1.1 billion during the corresponding period last year. This data underscores the intrinsic relationship between the growth in mobile money payments and higher remittances because there are now more avenues for funds to be channelled through.

Financial transactions through mobile money platforms are eclipsing traditional payment systems, which may soon be made redundant.