The Bank of Mozambique ( BoM) has announced that one third of the population has access to banking services in the country and 93% use services provided by Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), which operate via mobile phone.
“Currently, every district in the country has at least one point of access to financial services. A third of the population uses banking services and 93 per cent uses those provided by EMIs,” revealed BoM governor Rogério Zandamela, explaining that these results reflect the reforms that have been made in the telecommunications sector, allowing for greater financial inclusion at national level.
“Throughout the country, we have more than 90,000 accounts opened at EMIs. In addition, more than 1,250 agents are in operation for every 100,000 adults,” he revealed.
Zandamela emphasised that “transactions increased significantly between 2022-23, especially transfers from banks to EMIs, which rose from 61,000 to 888,000”.
“Transfers between Electronic Money Institutions also increased, from 17.7 million to 74.7 million,” he said.
The leader recognised, however, that there is still a lot to be done, and pointed out as an example that “the percentage of access to banking services is still below that of countries like Zimbabwe, with 46%, Nigeria, with 40% and Lesotho, with 39%”.
“So, looking to the future, we need to take a look back in order to learn lessons from our actions and identify the challenges we need to overcome. Mozambique’s success towards a financially inclusive society depends on recognising and interconnecting various factors,” he said.
Mozambique currently has three Electronic Money Institutions, belonging to three mobile telecoms operators – mKesh, from state operator Tmcel, which was the first to be created in 2012, M-Pesa, from Vodacom, in 2013, and, the following year, e-Mola, from Movitel.
