E-Financial
Africa’s Mobile-Money Market to Hit $1.5Bn by 2019
Sub Saharan Africa is adopting mobile financial services at a pace seen in few other places, presenting banks and mobile network operators (MNOs) with a set of strategic choices that will go a long way toward determining their success in the region.
The use of mobile financial services in sub-Saharan Africa to do such things as pay utility bills and send money to relatives could produce an estimated $1.5 billion in fees for mobile-money providers by 2019, according to research being published by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
The report says that sub-Saharan Africans are looking for more-secure ways to borrow and save money and are open to other financial products delivered using mobile phones, including loans and insurance.
Although mobile financial services are emerging all over the world, sub-Saharan Africa’s unique circumstances — a combination of a mostly “unbanked” population and heavy mobile-phone penetration — have turned the region into an early adopter of mobile banking and a test bed for the technology’s potential.
Eight of the ten countries that make the most use of mobile financial services are in Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of active accounts (43 percent).
With the population in sub-Saharan Africa growing and becoming wealthier, the number of people aged 15 or older with an individual annual income $500 or more will rise to more than 460 million by 2019.
This trend is likely to strengthen as governments in sub-Saharan Africa increasingly focus on their education, health, and security systems — enhancing the potential for long-term economic growth in their countries.
According to BCG, by 2019 there will also be some 400 million unique mobile-phone subscribers and almost 150 million traditionally banked sub-Saharan Africans.
That will leave some 250 million sub-Saharan Africans aged 15 or older who have incomes of $500 or more and mobile phones but no traditional bank account. This gives a sense of the potential market for mobile financial services.
“Mobile financial services aren’t new, but they’re at an inflection point and adoption is accelerating,” said Hans Kuipers, a BCG partner and coauthor of the report.
“This is not something that African banks or MNOs can afford to ignore. A bank or MNO that isn’t active in the market runs the risk of becoming less and less relevant.”
Mobile financial services are “a way for African banks to drive and capitalize on the trend toward financial inclusion,” added Michael Seeberg, a BCG principal and a coauthor of the report.
“Failing to come up with a strategy could erode a bank’s existing customer base as even traditionally banked Africans increasingly turn to the simpler and cheaper mobile offerings.”
For banks and MNOs, a welcome dynamic of the market is its nascent state and the immature vendor landscape. With the exception of m-pesa — a service whose breakaway success in Kenya, the report notes, stems largely from favorable regulatory circumstances — no mobile financial service in sub-Saharan Africa has established an impregnable position yet.
To succeed, banks and MNOs will need to invest in infrastructure, business capabilities, and governance.
A critical piece of infrastructure is a network of agents. These are the physical places where sub-Saharan African consumers can sign up for a mobile financial service and make deposits and withdrawals — the equivalent of the terrestrial world’s bank branches.
Consumer insights are among the important business capabilities. This speaks to a bank or MNO’s ability to identify and develop the offerings that would matter most to consumers. It also has to do with knowing when to introduce different services.
Good governance is critical because of the partnerships that will be needed to create an ecosystem for mobile service offerings. Mobile financial services should not be a go-it-alone proposition; neither banks nor MNOs have everything that’s needed to succeed on their own.
The banks have the back-office systems and the understanding of risk and financial-industry regulations; the MNOs have the access to customers and the relationships with mobile-phone-store operators that could become a foundation for agent networks.
“Banks and MNOs are complementary in this space; each has something the other needs,” Kuipers said. “In many cases, it will make sense for them to team up.”
While it’s true that the market is still coming into focus, it won’t be long before mobile financial services play a significant role in this part of the world.
The technology is here, mobile penetration is deep and growing, and a huge portion of the sub-Saharan population is becoming bankable.
“The vendors that want to establish a strong market position are going to need to find the right partners and start developing an offering,” Kuipers said. “The time to do those things is now.”
World Bank has approved an additional $65 million loan for Nigeria to support the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental, and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project, increasing the total financing for the initiative to $145 million.
The approval was granted on June 24, 2025, according to details posted on the World Bank’s website, which also indicates that the project’s status has moved to “active” following the approval.
The SPESSE project, initially launched with an $80 million loan approved in February 2020, aims to strengthen institutional capacity for managing procurement, environmental, and social standards in both the public and private sectors across Nigeria.
The World Bank described the project’s development objective as the establishment of sustainable capacity in these areas.
This latest approval is part of a broader wave of financing expected from the World Bank to Nigeria in 2025.
The bank is scheduled to approve loans totalling $1.61 billion over the coming months, supporting various development initiatives.
Among these is a $300 million loan for the ‘Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project,’ expected to be finalised by the end of July.
This project aims to improve access to basic services and economic opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in selected local government areas in northern Nigeria.
In September, the World Bank plans to approve four additional loans: a $10.5 million facility to support technical assistance for the Central Bank of Nigeria, a $300 million Health Security Program targeting Western and Central Africa (Nigeria – Phase IV), a $500 million project for building resilient digital infrastructure (BRIDGE), and a $500 million loan under the Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth project aimed at promoting sustainable growth and job creation within key agricultural sectors.
Earlier in March 2025, the bank approved three financing requests amounting to $1.13 billion.
These funds are directed towards projects focused on enhancing quality education, boosting household and community resilience, and improving nutrition.
Among the approved loans were $80 million for the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0 project, $552 million for the HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme, and $500 million for the Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus Programme.
In February, the Nigerian government announced expectations of new World Bank loans totalling $2.2 billion for six different projects in 2025. This follows a $1.5 billion loan disbursed in 2024 aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s economic stability and resource mobilisation efforts.
Ecobank, a pan-African financial services group, has partnered with Google Cloud in a deal to improve financial services with advanced analytics, AI and driving digital empowerment across Africa.
This collaboration will focus on leveraging Google Cloud’s advanced technologies and AI to enhance Ecobank’s digital offerings to accelerate the digital transformation of the Bank.
The partnership agreement is designed to empower individuals, support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region, and contribute to the overall economic development of Africa.
“Our collaboration with Google Cloud is a leap forward in Ecobank’s digital transformation journey. We look forward to leveraging Google Cloud’s world-class technology to unlock new possibilities for individuals and businesses to grow and scale across Africa,” said Jeremy Awori, group chief executive officer of Ecobank.
“This collaboration signifies our shared intent to explore building a more connected and financially inclusive future for the continent.”
Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud, stated that Google Cloud and Ecobank have a shared vision for using technology to help deliver financial empowerment to more people and businesses in Africa.
“We look forward to exploring the ways our cutting-edge AI, powerful data analytics, and scalable infrastructure can support Ecobank’s efforts to fuel the continent’s economic development and digital future.”
The collaboration aims to simplify and streamline money transfers, both domestically and across borders. By leveraging Google Cloud’s capabilities, including its powerful data analytics platform, BigQuery, for AI-driven insights, Ecobank will aim to develop solutions that improve access to finance for SMEs, simplify payment acceptance, and provide valuable data-driven insights to help businesses scale across more than 33 countries in Africa.
Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc has announced the successful close of the N148.7 billion Rights Issue subscription exercise following the completion of the verification exercise by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and final clearance by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Stanbic IBTC Holdings said the Rights Issue was oversubscribed by 21.9 percent, adding that the holding company has injected N140 billion into Stanbic IBTC Bank.
Kunle Adedeji, acting Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc while commenting on the just concluded rights issue programme said that “The turnout and participation of existing shareholders taking up their rights was impressive such that the rights issue was oversubscribed by 21.9percent to the tune of N181.4 billion. Our shareholders’ interest shows the confidence they continue to have in the brand,” he said.
“We appreciate the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria, The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Lead Issuing house, Joint Issuing houses and other stakeholders in the successful completion of the recapitalisation exercise.
“We are optimistic about future opportunities, as the injection of new capital will position us to take advantage of them to enable us to deliver to our shareholders. To all shareholders, we are grateful for your unwavering belief and support for the Stanbic IBTC Brand and your willingness to continue this journey with us,” Adedeji said.
Having received an injection of N140 billion from the parent company, the Chief Executive of the Banking subsidiary, Wole Adeniyi, remarked that “the injection of the new capital into the banking subsidiary is a positive development. This will enable the Bank to seize additional opportunities within the industry and enhance our Single Obligor Limit (SOL).
“We deeply appreciate the dedication and hard work of our regulators, issuing houses, and all other stakeholders. We extend our sincere gratitude for your continued support.”
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