Mobile money transactions hit K295.8 billion

THE value of mobile money transactions has hit K295.8 billion owing to an extensive adoption of digital financial services.

This development also presents important opportunities for increased financial inclusion in Zambia.

Statistics from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) have indicated that the value of mobile money transactions increased significantly to K295.8 billion at the end of 2022 from K169.4 billion recorded at the end of 2021.

ZICTA in its2022 Annual Market Performance Report for the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Sector realised by its Manager Corporate Communications, Hanford Chaaba, indicated that this reflected an increase of 74.63 percent.

Mr Chaaba said the total number of active mobile money subscriptions in the country increased to 11.2 million subscribers in 2022 from 9.8 million in 2021, representing a growth rate of 13.98 percent

“Similarly, the volume of mobile money transactions increased from 834 million transactions at the end of 2021 to 1,581 million transactions at the end of 2022 reflecting an improvement of 89.60 percent.

“This performance represents extensive adoption of digital financial services and presents important opportunities for increased financial inclusion in the country,” he said.

Mr Chaaba also forecasts a positive outlook in the general uptake and use of ICT services in the subsequent this year.

He stated that the number of active mobile network subscriptions was expected to increase to 20.4 million subscriptions at the end of 2023 and subsequently 21.3 million in 2024 from 19.8 million reported at the end of 2022.

This was after the number of active mobile cellular subscriptions reduced from 20.2 million subscriptions reported at the end of 2021 to 19.8 million subscriptions at the end of 2022 representing an annual decline of two percent.

“The overall decline in the number of mobile cellular subscriptions as well as mobile cellular penetration rate was mainly attributed to the significant number of sim cards that were deactivated.

“This was relative to the new activations during the review period in a bid to increase compliance to the sim registration guidelines issued by the Authority as well as efforts to curb the surge in fraudulent activities carried out on mobile cellular platforms,” Mr Chaaba said.