E-Financial
Africa’s Mobile-Money Market to Hit $1.5Bn by 2019
Sub Saharan Africa is adopting mobile financial services at a pace seen in few other places, presenting banks and mobile network operators (MNOs) with a set of strategic choices that will go a long way toward determining their success in the region.
The use of mobile financial services in sub-Saharan Africa to do such things as pay utility bills and send money to relatives could produce an estimated $1.5 billion in fees for mobile-money providers by 2019, according to research being published by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The report says that sub-Saharan Africans are looking for more-secure ways to borrow and save money and are open to other financial products delivered using mobile phones, including loans and insurance.
Although mobile financial services are emerging all over the world, sub-Saharan Africa’s unique circumstances — a combination of a mostly “unbanked” population and heavy mobile-phone penetration — have turned the region into an early adopter of mobile banking and a test bed for the technology’s potential.
Eight of the ten countries that make the most use of mobile financial services are in Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of active accounts (43 percent).
With the population in sub-Saharan Africa growing and becoming wealthier, the number of people aged 15 or older with an individual annual income $500 or more will rise to more than 460 million by 2019.
This trend is likely to strengthen as governments in sub-Saharan Africa increasingly focus on their education, health, and security systems — enhancing the potential for long-term economic growth in their countries.
According to BCG, by 2019 there will also be some 400 million unique mobile-phone subscribers and almost 150 million traditionally banked sub-Saharan Africans.
That will leave some 250 million sub-Saharan Africans aged 15 or older who have incomes of $500 or more and mobile phones but no traditional bank account. This gives a sense of the potential market for mobile financial services.
“Mobile financial services aren’t new, but they’re at an inflection point and adoption is accelerating,” said Hans Kuipers, a BCG partner and coauthor of the report.
“This is not something that African banks or MNOs can afford to ignore. A bank or MNO that isn’t active in the market runs the risk of becoming less and less relevant.”
Mobile financial services are “a way for African banks to drive and capitalize on the trend toward financial inclusion,” added Michael Seeberg, a BCG principal and a coauthor of the report.
“Failing to come up with a strategy could erode a bank’s existing customer base as even traditionally banked Africans increasingly turn to the simpler and cheaper mobile offerings.”
For banks and MNOs, a welcome dynamic of the market is its nascent state and the immature vendor landscape. With the exception of m-pesa — a service whose breakaway success in Kenya, the report notes, stems largely from favorable regulatory circumstances — no mobile financial service in sub-Saharan Africa has established an impregnable position yet.
To succeed, banks and MNOs will need to invest in infrastructure, business capabilities, and governance.
A critical piece of infrastructure is a network of agents. These are the physical places where sub-Saharan African consumers can sign up for a mobile financial service and make deposits and withdrawals — the equivalent of the terrestrial world’s bank branches.
Consumer insights are among the important business capabilities. This speaks to a bank or MNO’s ability to identify and develop the offerings that would matter most to consumers. It also has to do with knowing when to introduce different services.
Good governance is critical because of the partnerships that will be needed to create an ecosystem for mobile service offerings. Mobile financial services should not be a go-it-alone proposition; neither banks nor MNOs have everything that’s needed to succeed on their own.
The banks have the back-office systems and the understanding of risk and financial-industry regulations; the MNOs have the access to customers and the relationships with mobile-phone-store operators that could become a foundation for agent networks.
“Banks and MNOs are complementary in this space; each has something the other needs,” Kuipers said. “In many cases, it will make sense for them to team up.”
While it’s true that the market is still coming into focus, it won’t be long before mobile financial services play a significant role in this part of the world.
The technology is here, mobile penetration is deep and growing, and a huge portion of the sub-Saharan population is becoming bankable.
“The vendors that want to establish a strong market position are going to need to find the right partners and start developing an offering,” Kuipers said. “The time to do those things is now.”
The next currency crisis could accelerate the shift of the roughly $315 billion global stablecoin market into a digital-dollar alternative for citizens in emerging economies, notably in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
As local fiat currencies face devaluation and high inflation, citizens and businesses are increasingly utilizing smartphone-based stablecoins (such as USDT and USDC) as hedges and primary mediums of exchange.
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the rapid adoption of dollar-linked digital assets—particularly in countries heavily affected by inflation like Nigeria—poses significant risks to monetary sovereignty.
With up to 95% of surveyed individuals in some African markets preferring to receive payments in stablecoins over local fiat, the rising volume of these decentralized, cross-border channels weakens domestic currency demand and dilutes the effectiveness of local monetary policy.
IMF observed in a report titled “Stablecoins in Nigeria: A Growing Cross-Border Channel” noted that the widespread use of stablecoins poses risks to monetary sovereignty, particularly as more individuals and businesses turn to digital dollar-linked assets for savings and transactions.
Nodding in agreement is Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute), a non-profit organisation run by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund.
FII Institute said that central banks face structural challenges.
And according to the institute, when citizens move savings out of national banks and into private digital wallets, conventional capital controls lose their grip.
Institutions like the Bank for International Settlements warn that interest-bearing stablecoins compete directly with domestic-currency deposits, complicating financial oversight and making smartphone-based transfers incredibly difficult for authorities to monitor.
In Nigeria, Naira depreciation has pushed users toward dollar-stablecoins, according to report by Gino Matos in cryptoslate.com.
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a steady value by pegging its price to a reserve asset, such as a fiat currency (e.g., the U.S. dollar) or a commodity (e.g., gold).
They act as a bridge between traditional money and the digital asset world, providing the speed of crypto without the extreme price swings of assets like Bitcoin.
Federal government has reopened three federal government of Nigeria (FGN) bond issues valued at N1.2 trillion for subscription as part of efforts to raise long-term funds from the domestic debt market.
The Debt Management Office (DMO), which announced the offer on Tuesday, said the three reopened bond issues are each valued at N400 billion.
According to the DMO, the first offer is the January 2035 FGN Bond, a 10-year reopening, carrying an interest rate of 22.60 per cent per annum.
The second is the May 2028 FGN Bond, a 15-year reopening, with a coupon rate of 15.45 per cent per annum, while the third is the June 2037 FGN Bond, a 20-year reopening, also valued at N400 billion.
The office said the bond auction is scheduled for July 20, while successful subscriptions will be settled on July 22.
It explained that the bonds are offered at N1,000 per unit, with a minimum subscription of N50 million and additional investments in multiples of N1,000.
For the reopened bonds, the DMO said successful bidders would pay a price based on the yield-to-maturity that clears the auction, in addition to any accrued interest on the instruments.
Interest on the bonds will be paid every six months, while the principal will be repaid in full on the respective maturity dates.
The DMO reaffirmed that FGN bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the Federal Government and constitute obligations chargeable on the general assets of the federation.
It added that the bonds qualify as trustee investment securities under the Trustee Investment Act and enjoy tax exemptions for eligible investors, including pension funds, under the Company Income Tax Act and Personal Income Tax Act.
The bonds are listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) and FMDQ Securities Exchange and also qualify as liquid assets for banks in computing their liquidity ratios.
FGN bonds are long-term debt instruments through which investors lend money to the Federal Government in exchange for periodic interest payments and repayment of the principal at maturity.
Gigbanc, Nigerian fintech startup, has announced it is winding down operations, after three years, citing a tough fundraising climate.
Paul Omoregie Okundaye, and Babatope Oni, co-founders of Gigbanc
The company, which set out to build cross-border financial infrastructure for African freelancers, creators, entrepreneurs and businesses, confirmed the decision in a statement signed by its co-founders.
“After careful consideration, Gigbanc’s leadership has made the difficult decision to wind down operations,” the company said, adding that the move “reflects the broader funding environment affecting early stage startups in Africa, a challenge that has been widely documented across the ecosystem.”
Since its founding, Gigbanc grew a community of more than 150,000 people across multiple countries and processed over $7.28 million (N10 billion) in payment volume, helping thousands of users receive their first international payment.
The company also ran conferences, fellowships and community events aimed at connecting entrepreneurs and creators across the continent.
`Despite the shutdown, Gigbanc said it is not walking away emptyhanded.
The company disclosed that it is in active acquisition discussions with a prominent financial infrastructure firm, with further details to be shared once the process closes.
Paul Omoregie Okundaye, co-founder and CEO, and Babatope Oni, co-founder and CTO, framed the closure as the end of a chapter rather than the erasure of Gigbanc’s impact.
“While Gigbanc is winding down operations, we don’t see this as the end of what we built together. Instead, we see it as the completion of an important chapter,” the founders said. “The relationships, lessons, community, and impact we’ve created will continue to outlive the company itself.”
The founders thanked users for their trust throughout the company’s run, citing everything from transactions and feature requests to bug reports and criticism as forces that shaped the product
“We leave this journey incredibly proud. Proud of our team, who gave everything they had.
Proud of the community that rallied behind us,” they said.
Gigbanc’s exit adds to a growing list of African startups that have shut down or scaled back operations in recent years as venture funding on the continent has tightened, with founders increasingly citing capital scarcity as the primary driver behind closures and consolidations.
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