The number of Electronic Money Institution (EMI) agents in Mozambique, which operate through mobile telecoms operators, grew again, by 8% in three months, to over 242,000, covering all 154 districts in the country.
“The total number of EMI agents totalled 203,200 last September, which rose to 224,700 at the end of December, and has now risen to 242,500 in the first quarter of 2024,” explained the BoM’s statistical report.
According to the document, in the period under review, at a national level, the city of Maputo was the place that licensed the most EMI agents, with more than 35,000, noting that there are still 22 districts that do not have any branches of traditional banks.
Mozambique currently has three Electronic Money Institutions belonging to the three mobile telecoms operators. These are the mKesh mobile wallet, owned by state operator Tmcel, which was the first to be created in 2012, followed by Vodacom’s M-Pesa in 2013 and Movitel’s e-Mola the following year.
BoM data indicates that in 2023, the institutions broke the record for transfers, with more than 400 million operations. “By 2021, the country had 11.4 million EMI accounts. The following year, it rose to 11.9 million and, last year, the number soared to 16.5 million.”
In the budget proposal for 2024, the Executive plans to continue the fiscal policy reforms to “increase the level of revenue collection”, namely by moving ahead with “taxing the commissions of agents and Electronic Money Institutions”.
