The number of digital wallet agents in Mozambique (Electronic Money Institutions – IME), operating via mobile phones, surged again in the first quarter of 2025 to 351,900, according to official data compiled this Wednesday, June 11, by Lusa.
According to the latest report from the Bank of Mozambique on financial inclusion indicators, this represents a coverage of 1,817 agents and 110 IME accounts per 100,000 adults. This coverage, which already reaches all 154 districts of the country, has been progressively growing, reaching a previous record at the end of 2024 of 1,686 IME agents per 100,000 adults, compared to only 350 in 2019.
At the end of 2024, the number of digital wallet agents in the country stood at 315,000, according to the central bank’s records. Mozambique currently has three Electronic Money Institutions, operated by the three mobile telecommunications companies, which provide financial services via mobile phone, including money transfers between clients or payment for services.
This solution facilitates and expands access for the population to financial services by only using a mobile phone and IME agents on the street. The number of bank accounts in the country grew by 10% in 2024.
According to a previous statistical report by the Bank of Mozambique, the number of bank accounts in the country increased from 5.6 million at the end of 2023 to 6.2 million in December last year, but this growth does not keep pace with that of IMEs, which grew by 18.5% in the same period to 19.8 million — almost three million new accounts in one year.
Four years earlier, in 2020, the number of these electronic money accounts was nearly half that, standing at 10,833,801.
Lusa previously reported that the government intends to tax the commissions of agents and IMEs.
According to a government document on actions undertaken in 2024, last year the government advanced the process of “taxation of commissions” for agents and IMEs, having drafted the respective bill, which was submitted to the Assembly of the Republic, although no further details were provided.
It added, however, that two mobile wallet institutions “provided data on their agents and super-agents nationwide to create a database,” aiming to “broaden the tax base and consequently increase revenue collection in this segment of the digital economy.”
Source: Diário Económico
