adminusing mobiles to make payments, according to an industry study released Wednesday at the world’s biggest mobile fair held from February 25-28 in Barcelona, Spain.
The study by the mobile operators’ industry association, GSMA, found there were more mobile money accounts than traditional bank accounts in Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Uganda.
In a single month, June 2012, more than 30 million people worldwide undertook 224.2 million transactions totalling $4.6 billion (3.5 billion euros), said the report, based on a worldwide survey. The pace of activity exceeded the 196.3 million transactions performed by PayPal customers on average each month in the third quarter of 2012, it said.
Providers offered 150 mobile money services for people without banks, 41 of which were launched in 2012.
There were 56.9 million registered mobile money customers in sub-Saharan Africa, the study said.
In June 2012, there were twice as many mobile money users as Facebook users in the region. Mobile money’s success is based on the fact that the number of mobile phone owners far exceeds the number of people with bank accounts. Sending money can be as simple as sending an SMS text message.
In Indonesia, mobile phone penetration is 106 percent, meaning there is more than one phone for each person in the population, while only 20 percent of the population holds a bank account.- AFP..
Online Reporter