Paying with your phone has become a commonplace act in Kenya, an African pioneer in this field, but also, to a lesser extent, in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Ghana.
According to a World Bank report published on Wednesday, preliminary observations confirm the acceleration of mobile payment around the world, including in developing countries with the Covid pandemic.
The Washington institution recalls that financial inclusion is one of the keys to development.
One example among many: a study cited in the report showed that the rise of mobile payment in Uganda had increased consumption per capita by 13%.
Access to means of payment by telephone also promotes the financial independence of women.
In sub-Saharan Africa, in 2021, one in three adults had an account allowing them to pay with their mobile.
In the 2011 and 2017 surveys, it was mainly Indians and Chinese who opened new accounts.
The movement has spread to the rest of Asia and Africa.
Still, financial inclusion has not yet taken everyone on board.
In about fifteen African countries, the data are downright insufficient to establish an observation.
And globally,
one in four adults (or 1.3 billion people) still does not have a bank or mobile account.
However, this is much better than ten years earlier, when one in two adults was not banked at all.
