Mobile Banking in Africa
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AfDB Africa Economic Brief Volume 1 • Issue 8 Chief Economist Complex December 2010 www.afdb.org Mobile Banking KEY ISSUES • Mobile telephony in Africa: Taking the Bank penetration in Africa has increased exponentially to the People from less than 2 million subscribers in 1998 to over Peter Ondiege* 400 million in 2009. • Mobile banking offers an opportunity to serve the “unbanked”: only 20 percent 1 – Introduction which culminate into exceedingly high of African families have a cost of providing banking services. bank account. Improving access to financial services can Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania for • Mobile banking is staging a contribute to transforming peoples’ lives in instance, each have less than one bank true “revolution” in access developing countries. However, the branch per every 100,000 people to finance. A mobile phone majority of the ordinary people in these compared to 100 in Spain. This ratio can serve as: a virtual bank card; countries still have limited access to these however shows a high disparity across the a point of sale terminal; services. Today, an estimated 2.7 billion continent, with Namibia having more than an ATM; people in developing countries have no four, Zimbabwe more than three and an internet banking terminal. access to financial services. Over a billion Botswana nearly four bank branches per • Mobile banking offers more people in Africa, Latin America and Asia 100,000 people. opportunities for are currently without bank accounts but partnerships between do have a mobile phone. This number is Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the banks, non-bank financial institutions; mobile set to reach 1.7 billion by 20121. lowest deposit institution penetration in telephony enables MFIs and the world standing at an average of IFIs to increase access to In Africa, the majority of the population has 16.6% compared to 63.5% in finance, especially in rural 4 areas for households and no access to banking services, with only developing countries. This level of SMEs. 20% of African families having bank penetration gives 166 banks per 1,000 accounts2. For instance, in 2007, only adults for the SSA region. Again there is about 30% of household in Kenya had a wide variation among countries in bank accounts; and in Benin, with a SSA, with Guinea-Bissau recording the population of 7 million had only 35 bank lowest 0.6% and Mauritius the highest branches in 2006.3 The limited access to of over 210% deposit account financial services in Africa stems penetration. Most of these deposits in Mthuli Ncube particularly from deficient infrastructure, SSA are held in commercial banks, with [email protected] physical-geographical isolation or few exceptions such as in Niger, +216 7110 2062 inaccessibility, financial illiteracy, all of Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin Charles Leyeka Lufumpa [email protected] * Peter Ondiege is Chief Research Economist in Development Research Department at African Development +216 7110 2175 Bank, [email protected] 1 Efam Dovi, 2008, ‘Boosting Domestic Savings in Africa’, Vol. 22, No. 3, www.un. To invest more, countries Leonce Ndikumana must tap assets now outside the banks , www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec [email protected] 2 Same as Foot Note 1. +216 7110 2076 3 Mwangi Kimenyi and Njuguna Ndungu, 2009 October, Expanding rhe Financial Services Frontier: Lessons From Mobile Phone Banking in Kenya, Brookings, www.brookings.edu/media 4 Financial Access 2010, SSA Factsheet, CGAP-World Bank, www.cgap.org/financialindicators African Development Bank AfDB Africa Economic Brief Chief Economist Complex Volume 1 • Issue 8 • December 2010 • www.afdb.org which have more deposits in India it rose from 0.12 per 100 to 44.7 per microfinance institutions (MFIs), and 100 people. In this period, Africa also Burundi in cooperatives and credit witnessed a significant increase from 0.53 “It is this gap in the financial unions. Even Africans with bank per 100 people to 42.82 per 100 people.5 services market that is accounts often face high charges for Many African countries also experienced creating a unique niche for moving their cash around, due to high robust increase in mobile penetration mobile phone banking to transactions costs. It is this gap in the during 2003 and 2009: from 45.4 per develop on the continent, financial services market that is creating 1000 people in 2003 to 937.94 per 1000 enabling a growing number of people to access financial a unique niche for mobile phone in 2009 in Algeria; from 248.09 per 1000 services for the first time” banking to develop on the continent, to 961.19 per 1000 in Botswana; from enabling a growing number of people to 359.88 per 1000 to 926 per 1000 in South access financial services for the first Africa; and from 46.80 per 1000 to 486.52 time. per 1000 in Kenya during the same period,6 At the same time, the average In this context, new technology-based price of a ‘2G handset’ decreased from financial services, such as mobile phone USD150 in 2003 to USD75 in 20087. The “Subscribers can now open banking and the use of smartcards, annual growth rates of mobile phone accounts, check their have the potential to substantially penetration in the developing world has balances, pay their bills, transfer money, and cater for increase people’s access to finance. In ranged between 30% and 50% or higher, their daily basic needs” South Africa, the DRC, Zambia and and penetration has been rapidly Kenya for instance, mobile phone increasing.8 banking is taking services to remote areas where conventional banks have The rapid development in Africa’s ICT been physically absent. Subscribers can sector, particularly mobile telephony is now open accounts, check their sending a strong message about the balances, pay their bills, transfer money, continent’s potential to innovate. Africa is and cater for their daily basic needs. now considered as the fastest emergent Mobile phones are also being used now continent in the ICT sector growth. Mobile for other public services such as phone penetration has exploded since monitoring elections and delivering 2000 (Figure 1). Most of the operators in public health messages. this market are local firms. In 1998 there were less than 2 million mobile phone In the past 30 years, three (3) products users in Africa. The number has grown to “In 1998 there were less than 2 million mobile phone users that are seen to have had the most impact over 400 million in 20099 (Table 1, and in Africa” on the world are in the ICT sector: the Annex 1). The compounded annual internet, PCs and mobile phones. growth rate is around 2000% over a Ofthese, the mobile phone has the highest decade and there is still potential for penetration in developing countries. For further growth. instance, between 1998 and 2009, mobile phone penetration in China increased from However, the mobile telephony industry 1.92 per 100 people to 55.9 per 100; in still faces a number of challenges. 5 Jerry Hausman, “Mobile phones in developing Countries”, May 2010, www.crei.cat/conferences/cornucopia/ confpapers; and ITU, World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database 2010, 1th Edition. 6 See Annex 2. 7 Jerry Hausman, ibid. 8 Jerry Hausman, ibid. 9 www.worldbank.org/connectafrica. 2 African Development Bank Africa Economic Brief AfDB Chief Economist Complex Volume 1 • Issue 8 • December 2010 • www.afdb.org Figure 1: Africa - Mobile cellular telephone subscriptions (Thousands) 450,000 400,000 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database 2010, 14th Ed. Penetration rates (mobile subscriptions taxes, which in some countries such as per 100 people) vary from under 10% in Tanzania and Uganda can be as high as Ethiopia to nearly 100% in Gabon, with an 30% of overall charges. average of about 33% for the whole “The mobile phone revolution continent.10 The mobile phone revolution This brief seeks to examine how the boom continues to leave large parts continues to leave large parts of the in mobile phone usage in Africa can be of the continent behind” continent behind. While countries like tapped to accelerate the provision of South Africa (88%) and much of North financial services with illustration from Africa (e.g., Algeria 81%) are approaching Kenya and South Africa. It illustrates how 100% mobile penetration, in Ethiopia, mobile phone innovation is providing e- Burundi, the Central African Republic, banking services to the ordinary people Eritrea and Rwanda it is less than 7%. Low and offering a diverse range of financial incomes, illiteracy and ‘large signal black services, especially to the unbanked spots’ are key obstacles to the acquisition people. It further discusses how access to and use of mobile phones. These this new technology may promote financial obstacles are further aggravated by high sector deepening in the continent. 10 The mobile phone ‘revolution’ in Africa: Rhetoric or reality? Sebastiana Etzo and Guy collender, http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/109/437/659.extract 3 African Development Bank AfDB Africa Economic Brief Chief Economist Complex Volume 1 • Issue 8 • December 2010 • www.afdb.org Table 1: Africa - Mobile cellular telephone subscriptions (post-paid + prepaid) (Thousands) Country 2003 2009 Annual Growth rates %(2003-2009) Algeria 1,446.90 32,729.80 68.17 Angola 350.00 8,109.40 68.84 Benin 236.20 5,033.30 66.51 Botswana 445.00 1,874.10 27.08 Burkina Faso 238.10 3,299.00 54.98 Burundi 64.00 838.40 53.54 Cameroon 1,077.00 7,397.20 37.87 Cape Verde 53.30 392.00 39.45 Central A Rep.