Mobile phone operators could help bring financial services to 60% of Zambia's population, who do not have a bank account, according to the country's central bank governor.
A FinScope survey, commissioned by Zambia's government, said only 40% of Zambians have access to financial services. This is a figure that the nation's central bank governor, Dr Michael Gondwe, says is “not encouraging”.
Gondwe, further commenting on the findings, said the Bank of Zambia, therefore, has to heavily rely on mobile money services from telecoms companies to help bridge the country's financial services gap.
He said that mobile operators should particularly focus on bringing mobile money services to rural areas.
"Limited outreach of banks and financial institutions to the general populace is the reason we want mobile phone operators to bridge the finance gap, because their networks are widely accessed," Gondwe said.
There are no statistics available about how many people in Zambia have access to mobile money services. But according to International Telecommunications Union research, Zambia recorded a growth of 308% in mobile banking services, as of December 2011.
Moreover, some telcos in that country have spoken about their own figures relating to mobile money services.
MTN Zambia CEO Abdul Ismail, for instance, said last month that the company has already acquired over 170 000 mobile money customers and 340 agents since the service was launched as a pilot project in Zambia in 2011.
Airtel Zambia says 58 000 of its customers use its mobile money service every day to transact cash.
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