Joy Agwunobi
The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) has disclosed that mobile money accounts worldwide processed a $1.68 trillion in 2024, underlining the increasing influence of digital financial services in promoting global financial inclusion and stimulating economic activity, especially across developing markets.
This revelation is contained in GSMA’s newly released State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2025, which presents an in-depth analysis of mobile money adoption trends, user behaviour, and regional performance in the past year.
According to the report, the mobile money sector recorded a 20 percent year-on-year surge in transaction volume, handling approximately 108 billion transactions in 2024, an indication of sustained double-digit growth for the industry.
This upward trend was mirrored in transaction values, which rose by 15 percent to reach $227 billion within the same period, marking an improvement over the 13 percent growth rate achieved in 2023.
One of the key drivers of this performance, the report notes, was peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, which contributed nearly half of the total growth in transaction value. Interoperable transactions—transfers that occur across different mobile money platforms or providers—also played a pivotal role, accounting for 23 percent of the increase in transaction value, underscoring the growing importance of cross-platform accessibility in enhancing user convenience.
Despite the impressive growth metrics, GSMA noted that a consistent trend for the third consecutive year: the rate of increase in transaction volumes outpaced that of transaction values. As a result, the average value per transaction made by active mobile money accounts declined slightly by 4 percent in 2024.
However, this drop in average transaction size did not equate to declining user engagement. On the contrary, activity levels among users deepened. The average mobile money account active within a 30-day period saw an 8 percent increase in transaction frequency and a 4 percent rise in the total amount transacted, suggesting a broader shift towards smaller, more frequent digital transactions in everyday life.
“The mobile money industry continues to drive financial inclusion.In December 2024 alone, 21 out of every 100 adults in countries where mobile money is available had used such an account within the previous three months,” the report stated.
The findings point to a wider transition towards digital financial solutions, particularly in regions where traditional banking infrastructure remains underdeveloped. More individuals and enterprises are embracing mobile money platforms for daily transactions, utility bill payments, remittances, and even savings, steadily transforming the financial services landscape in many emerging economies.
Speaking on the broader economic impact of mobile money, Vivek Badrinath, director general of GSMA noted that the technology continues to generate significant macroeconomic value. “By the end of 2023, the total GDP of countries with mobile money services was $720 billion higher than it would have been without mobile money,” he said.
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