World Bank reports ‘global surge’ in digital payments during pandemic

World Bank graph showing global surge in digital payments during Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a “global surge” in digital payments with two-thirds of adults worldwide now making or receiving digital payments, rising from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021 in developing economies and from 88% in 2014 to 95% in 2021 in high-income economies, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 database... More




GSMA reports 20% increase in mobile money users around the world

GSMA report highlights 20% annual increase in mobile money accounts to more than 866m worldwide — GSMA — “At the end of 2018, there were more than 866m registered accounts in 90 countries — a 20% increase on 2017. The report also shows that the mobile money industry processed transactions worth US$1.3bn a day in 2018, with digital transaction values growing at more than twice the rate of cash transactions.”



What's New in Payments

M-Pesa founder shares lessons learned from ten years of mobile money

Vodafone's Michael Joseph

M-Pesa pioneer Michael Joseph, founding CEO of Safaricom and now director of mobile money at Vodafone Group, explains how the service works and the lessons learned from building and deploying one of the world’s most successful mobile money services in an in-depth Q&A that is now available to download free of charge from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More


What's New in Payments

Visa chasing Indian payments market as mobile money gains traction

Visa chasing Indian payments market as mobile money gains traction — Developing Telecoms — “Visa CEO Alfred Kelly has affirmed the company’s goal to claim a ‘fair share’ of India’s incipient cashless payment market by offering low cost, low hassle solutions to merchants… ‘Because it’s an exciting market and a lot is going on, there’s a number of players trying to get into the market,’ said Kelly. ‘We clearly have to have a way that’s low cost, low hassle, low friction to enable merchants to sign up.’”


Sub-Saharan Africa driving global market for mobile money

Sub-Saharan Africa driving global market for mobile money — GSMA — “The new study points to a decade of growth in mobile money services in the region following the launch of M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007. It notes that there are now seven markets in the region where more than 40% of adults are active mobile money users: Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.”