Mobile phone banking boom in Africa

MANILA, Philippines - Four countries in Africa reported 1.2 million mobile phone banking transactions per month, worth approximately R122 million and have processed more than R1.2 billion in the last year.

Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Swaziland will soon be joined by Lesotho through the First National Bank (FNB).

Botswana currently leads the pack, recording the highest number of mobile phone banking users, with 65 percent of FNB customers in the country using the service.

It is followed by Namibia and Zambia at 47 percent, and Swaziland with 11 percent. The mobile phone banking service offered by FNB allows bank clients to transfer money from one account to another using their mobile phones.

FNB also launched eWallet services in Botswana last November, and it recorded over 89,000 transactions amounting to R31 million within the country’s borders. eWallet is now available in Swaziland and Lesotho.

The success of eWallet in Botswana has resulted in plans to roll out the solution in other African subsidiaries in the near future.

FNB officials said that mobile money services offer an inexpensive and convenient method to bridge the gap between the banked and un-banked. The African continent, by pure virtue of being one of the fastest growing mobile phone markets in the world, is the ideal environment for such innovation.

eWallet is an innovative service that enables FNB customers to send money to or pay anyone with a South African mobile phone. Since launch in 2009 eWallet has seen a rapid growth with more than 500 000 eWallets created and on average R2 million being sent daily using this service.