Mobile money hits $2trn global milestone in 2025 after doubling in four years

Global mobile money transactions hit $2 trillion in 2025, doubling in just four years after taking two decades to reach the first trillion, according to the GSMA’s latest State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money.

The mobile telecommunications industry body said the milestone marks the fastest period of growth yet for the sector, which allows people to send, receive and store money using only a mobile phone.

Registered accounts worldwide climbed to 2.3 billion last year, an increase of 268 million. Monthly active accounts rose 15 percent to 593 million, the strongest gain since 2021.

Read also: Nigeria overtakes Kenya’s mobile money legacy as instant payments surge

Africa led the surge, adding the bulk of new registered and active accounts and remaining the world’s main hub for mobile money use.

The rapid expansion was driven by rising demand for digital financial services such as savings, credit and insurance, as well as improved rules that make it easier for providers to operate.

These include better interoperability between networks and simpler customer identification systems.

Major operators highlighted the scale of the business. Safaricom’s M-Pesa earned 161.1 billion Kenyan shillings ($1.2 billion) in revenue in the year to March 2025 from 37.1 million users in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Vodacom, which owns Safaricom, handled $450.8 billion in transactions across its VodaCash and M-Pesa platforms in eight markets, up 18.3 percent from the previous year.

Orange Money more than doubled its transaction value to $178 billion in 2024 from $50 billion in 2021 and now moves up to $760 million in transfers each month. Orange Bank Africa had 1.7 million customers.

Despite the record figures, challenges remain. Nearly 75 percent of registered accounts stay inactive each month. Fraud and taxes in some countries still push users back to cash.

A gender gap persists. In seven out of ten countries surveyed, women who own a mobile money account are less likely than men to use it in any given month.

Regulation has helped growth. More than 60 percent of providers said rules on interoperability, customer checks and consumer protection supported their operations.

However, nearly a quarter reported that cross-border data transfer rules continue to slow them down.

The GSMA noted that the number of providers offering insurance products rose by a third in 2025, while credit and savings services kept expanding.

The industry body said mobile money is now moving beyond basic payments into a wider range of financial services. It called for stronger digital financial literacy programmes to help ensure safe and lasting growth.

Read also: Mobile money agents to celebrate decade of financial inclusion impact in Gombe

The latest data shows clear acceleration in both scale and depth of mobile money use. Transaction value grew faster than volume in 2025 for the first time in several years, indicating users are making larger or more valuable transactions and integrating the service more deeply into daily finance.

Africa’s leading contribution underscores how mobile money has enabled rapid financial inclusion in areas with limited traditional banking.

The sharp rise in registered accounts, paired with the highest active-account growth since 2021, signals improving engagement.

Yet the high inactivity rate and ongoing gender gap remain significant barriers that could limit the technology’s full impact on poverty reduction and economic empowerment.

As the sector matures, its expansion into insurance, credit and savings positions it as a maturing financial tool with potential to support broader development in emerging markets.