Mobile money users grow by 10%
Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday May 4, 2023 08:57
Mobile money services in Botswana include Smega by BTC, Orange Money by Orange Botswana, MyZaka by Mascom, and Poso Money by BotswanaPost. Figures shared by Statistics Botswana this week indicate that by December, the country had 1.8 million mobile money subscriptions, up from 1.65 million in December 2022.
While Statistics Botswana did not give further details on the subscription shares between the different market players, by March last year, a Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority report indicated that Orange was ahead of the pack, enjoying about 53% market share.
Orange Money was followed by Mascom’s MyZaka with a 36% market share or 611,550 subscriptions, with Smega coming significantly ahead of Poso Money in the hierarchy of user preferences. Statistics Botswana’s figures suggest that growth in the mobile money market has been both horizontal and vertical, with users taking on more subscriptions across the service providers and new subscribers uniquely signing on to the service.
Analysts have said the strong growth of mobile money services in the country reflects the local market’s deepening sophistication and innovation, enabled by the spread of both ICT and its usage.
One indicator of this is that the Bank of Botswana plans to phase out cheque usage by January 31 next year, while the value of Electronic Fund Transfer at Point of Sale (swiping) transactions has risen from P3 billion in 2012 to P34 billion last year.