Harare – The latest postal and telecommunications report for the final quarter of 2018 shows that there was significantly more pressure to cash out or relinquish balances from wallets by mobile money platform users than there was propensity to cash in.

This trend in mobile banking is synonymous with the broader banking sector which has seen a sharp demand in cash withdrawals notably in the final quarter of 2018 in line with macro fundamentals.

According to the report cash out transactions amounted to $837 760 820 which compared to $796 837 342 in the preceding third quarter period of the year a 5.1 percent increase.

On the other hand, cash in transactions amounted to $1,051,832,591 which compared to $1 070 206 108 in the preceding quarter a -1.7 percent decline.

Airtime, Bill & Merchant Payments amounted to $1 425 618 090 compared to $1 395 512 574 which is a slight 2.2 percent increase, whilst cross network transactions amounted to $98 092 compared to $239,700 in 2018 Q3 which a 59.1 percent decrease.

Cross-network transactions have been declining and this is attributable to the lack of comprehensive wallet to wallet interoperability amongst the three mobile money providers.

Overall number mobile money transactions declined 7.3 percent to close at 456 781 697 compared to 492 712 512 the prior quarter.

Mobile money has become an important channel for effecting Person to Business (P2B) transactions as shown by the growth in the value of merchant mobile money transactions.

An annual comparison shows that airtime and merchant payments grew by 190.5% to record $4,715,934,785 in 2018 from $1,623,469,563 recorded in 2017.

Cash-In transactions grew by 146.5 percent to record $3,806,534,842 from $1,544,100,162 recorded in 2017.

Cash-out transactions also grew by 105.6 percent to record $2,843,488,072 from $1,382,968,270 recorded in 2017.

On the other hand, cross-network transactions declined by 46.7 percent to record $683,732 from $1,282,318 recorded in 2017.

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