The impact of mobile money on monetary and financial stability in Sub-Saharan Africa

The benefits that mobile money enables for individuals, households and businesses have been demonstrated by a burgeoning body of research and empirical evidence, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where there were almost 400 million registered accounts at the end of 2018. However, the impact of mobile money on macroeconomic and financial development is not as well understood and has received much less attention.

This report assesses the impact of mobile money on monetary and financial stability across several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – something no previous study has done. It shows that mobile money can enable more effective monetary policy and is also associated with growth in the commercial banking sector. The report’s findings are highly relevant to central banks, mobile money providers and the wider financial sector because they can inform policy discussions both in countries where mobile money has not achieved scale and in those where it has.