State of play of mobile money on the African continent: An interview with Greg Reeve

‘Mobile money’ is a generic term for the ability to deliver various financial services to customers via mobile device. More than half a billion mobile money accounts were registered as of the end of 2016, with more than 170 million active accounts around the globe. People can use a mobile money account to receive their salary payment, purchase their electricity and water, buy groceries, transfer money to people they owe, pay their bills, move money to a savings account, and if required, access the money as cash. There is good progress across Africa, led by Safaricom with M-Pesa who, in their financial year 2016–2017 results, reported 19 million active subscribers, with ten transactions per customer per month. The most critical point to recognise is that each market is different. Mobile money has for the most part been an initiative led by the mobile phone operators. Recently however, banks are providing similar looking services. In this interview, Greg Reeve, Founding Partner of Mobile Finance Experts (MFX), discusses the development of mobile money on the African continent.