Mobile money: savings take off, but credit still stagnates in Africa (World Bank)
August 12th 2025
Mobile money has established itself as a unique savings accelerator for millions of Africans. But it still has to convince in the credit sector, where informality dominates, despite ongoing innovations.
The proportion of African adults with a mobile money account increased from 27% to 40% between 2021 and 2024, the highest rate in the world. This is according to the report ” The Global Findex Database 2025: Connectivity and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy, ” published in July 2025 by the World Bank.
The report reveals that 23% of African adults saved through their mobile account in 2024 (compared to 13% in 2021), while 35% reported saving digitally or through traditional institutions. Countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, and Uganda even have mobile money savings usage rates exceeding 50% among adults, a sign of massive adoption of the service.
More accessible than banking networks, mobile money facilitates small-scale savings, flexible deposits and withdrawals at local agents, and more inclusive adoption, especially for rural and informal areas.
Savings yes, but limited credit
Despite this success for savings, access to credit via mobile money remains very modest. In 2024, only 7% of African adults borrowed via their mobile account, a figure stable compared to 2021, while nearly 59% used credit (but mainly in informal forms: family, tontine).
In major mobile money economies (Kenya, Ghana, Uganda), 22 to 32% of adults have borrowed through a mobile operator, but this credit remains very small, short-term, and often associated with high interest rates, limiting the overall economic ripple effect.
Why this gap?
Several factors justify this. According to the World Bank, regulation remains cautious, as authorities fear over-indebtedness or fraud. The organization also denounces business models that favor deposits and payments, which are less risky than credit.
Furthermore, the report reveals that customers themselves are reluctant to borrow through little-known lending platforms (distrust, poor financial literacy, overly strict eligibility simulators).
Innovations and limitations to overcome
While a few fintechs and specialized mobile platforms are gradually expanding their offerings (alternative credit scoring, nano-credit for micro-entrepreneurs), the transition to a massive offer of inclusive digital credit remains to be done. The report specifies that countries like Kenya, with close cooperation between mobile operators, banks, and regulatory authorities, are ahead of the curve, but that elsewhere, the offering is progressing slowly.
The challenge now is to combine access to digital savings with policies of financial literacy, user protection (risks of scams, over-indebtedness) and regulatory innovation so that access to credit progresses without weakening already vulnerable populations.
For the World Bank, the potential of mobile money in Africa will only be truly unlocked when it contributes as much to productive investment as it does to securing savings. This involves strengthening customers’ trust and analytical capacity for digital credit offerings, improving interoperability between services and institutions, and adapting credit offerings to local economic realities, while minimizing associated risks.
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