Emerging Markets: Mobile Money for the Unbanked

Mobile money in emerging markets, together with mobile broadband, is probably the major growth engine of mobile network operators in emerging markets. The service is witnessing massive adoption and is starting to contribute significantly to telco revenues. Still 2 billion adults in the world remain without a bank account. This population is concentrated in less developed regions (Africa, part of Asia, and Latin America). A basic use case of sending money to the family for living by a remote worker is quite expensive for people without financial inclusion. Mobile penetration is much more universal, and enables these remittances in a cheap and convenient way. End users do not need to have the latest smartphone or mobile broadband, since the technology is based on feature phones and 2G technology (SMS or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-USSD channel). Domestic remittance is the most used application. Additional ones include bill payments and merchant payments. International remittances are now also possible even among different operators (cross-MNO agreements). Globally, in 2014, there were already more than 100 million active mobile money accounts, with services deployed in around 90 countries.