These figures reflect the growth of mobile finance in Gabon as an alternative to the traditional banking sector. Concentrated in the urban centers of Libreville, Port-Gentil and Franceville, banks struggle to reach low-income customers from regional and remote areas. The growing penetration of mobile telephony allows mobile finance to solve this accessibility problem.

The latest dashboard of the Gabonese Economy reveals that in 2022, telecom operators Airtel and Moov Africa achieved a turnover of 37.49 billion FCFA in the mobile money segment. A figure up 14.1% compared to 2021 when it was 32.8 billion, and which the Ministry of the Economy justifies by the “  good performance of the various services  ”.

This amount is made up of withdrawal operations which increased from 18.6 billion CFA to 21 billion (+12.8%); payment transactions which increased from 9.9 billion FCFA to 11 billion (+11.0%); national transfers which increased from 3.4 billion FCFA to 4 billion (+16.6%); transfer operations in the CEMAC zone increased by 66.6% to 1.5 billion FCFA, thanks to improved interoperability and the signing of agreements between mobile money service providers and banks.

The number of users of this service is also increasing. The Ministry of the Economy reveals that over the period, the quantity of mobile money accounts increased by 34%, from 2,373,803 in 2021 to 3,169,109 in 2022. The promotional offers from the two operators had the desired effect , increasing the number of active accounts from 1,019,189 to 1,196,464, or +17%.

As for the distribution circuit, if it was enriched with a new wholesaler in 2022, increasing to 30, it saw its quantity of semi-wholesalers drop from 788 to 500 informs Le Nouveau Gabon, a drop of 37 % .

Source: Agence Ecofin