The bank of Zambia (BoZ) revealed that the demand for Digital Financial Services (DFS) in Zambia is growing at a very fast rate.
BoZ Governor for Operations Dr. Bwalya Ng’andu cited a report indicating that the number of agents offering DFSs has increased by 104% from about 23,000 in 2017, to 47,000 in 2018 and 4.3 million active DFS customer accounts as at December 2018, representing 89% growth in active DFS accounts compared to 2.3 million in 2017.
Dr. Ng’andu said the 2018 state of the DFS industry report shows the strength of the country’s emerging digital economy and that digital financial services are proving to be an effective too for achieving the financial inclusion agenda.
He was speaking during the launch of the report which was produced in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in Lusaka.
“Such technology driven innovations are providing a pathway for uplifting the unbanked and under-served marginalised people across the developing world by providing them with a safe, cheap and convenient means of accessing formal financial services ranging from savings, payments and transfers to credit and insurance,” said the Deputy Governor Operations.
Speaking at the same Event, United Nations Capital Development Fund Regional Technical specialist for Mobile Money For the poor Nandini Harihareswara revealed that there has been a 69 percent drop in over the counter financial transactions as at 2018.
Ms Harihareswara said there are currently 272 mobile money deployments available in over 90 countries globally and a 143 million growth in the number of registered customers in the same year.
She added that about $1.3bn is processed daily in the mobile money industry.