The value of mobile money transactions in emerging markets will reach $2 trillion by 2027, an increase of over $500 billion from 2023, a new study from Juniper Research said.
Airtel Africa, one of the leading mobile operators in emerging markets, said it achieved 20.4 percent increase in mobile money customers to 31.5 million during January-March 2023.

Mobile money transaction value increased by 41.3 percent, with Q4’23 annualised transaction value exceeding $102 billion, Airtel Africa said.

Orange Group, one of the leading mobile operators in emerging markets, has achieved 20.7 percent increase in its Orange Money business during January-March 2023.

The size of mobile money transactions, growing at 33 percent, will be driven by the transition to PaaP (Payments-as-a-Platform). PaaP model allows third parties to deliver products via mobile money apps.

PaaP enables third parties to have more access to users, without mobile money operators having to develop additional services themselves. This also enables greater revenue for mobile money operators, whilst allowing them to meet increasingly sophisticated user demands.

There will be 411 million users of MFS (Mobile Financial Services) within emerging markets by 2027. This 40 percent increase is a result of providers offering a variety of services, such as microloans and microinsurance, to satisfy growing user demand.

The rising maturity of several mobile money markets, growing customer awareness and affluence of users has increased the importance of mobile money vendors providing sophisticated MFS; investing in technologies that facilitate it.

Research co-author Cara Malone said: “Vendors must implement sophisticated MFS in an effective way, or they will lose ground to rising competition. This can be best achieved through new approaches, such as leveraging existing data that operators hold to enable alternative credit scoring, allowing much greater lending opportunities.”