Mobile Money Solving Pain Point Challenges-Impact on Africa iGaming Industry

After more than a decade since its emergence, mobile money has evolved as the standard financial service, now the first choice for many underserved groups in developing African countries. Its appeal and quick adoption in African countries have primarily been due to its democratization of financial service.

But the rapid adoption and proliferation usage in many underserved groups aren’t due to its convenience only as it is in many developed markets. Still, on its necessity in the African space, mobile money bridging the gap for unbanked African people that the existing banking sector cannot offer due to its lackluster service, and the increasing African population becomes an issue for the traditional banking sector to meet the demand of the underserved people, the lack of access to banking services, poor user experience in rural and remote areas, and expensive to manage for this set of the population as all contribute to the frustration of consumers experience right across customer spectrum.

As a result of these challenges, the Fintech space pinpoints some of these challenges by innovating its service and adopting tech areas necessary to solve the underserved population’s pain point challenges. This innovation by the Fintech ecosystem turns emerging markets become the epicenter of mobile money. Sub-Saharan Africa experienced the most significant growth when it comes to the usage of mobile money. The region transaction volume and value of mobile money have experienced double-digit growth during the last decade.

In comparison, mobile money accounts are expected to reach 500 million accounts by the end of 2020. This runaway success has been evident in Africa. The penetration rate has been estimated to impact the sub-Saharan African economy by $150 billion in value by 2022, according to GSMA. However, different sectors in Africa have benefited from the emergence of mobile money sectors. The e-commerce iGaming industry is no exception to the mobile money effect from the business perspective. The impact and contribution have been instrumental to the African economy. The exponential growth of iGaming betting and gambling in the continent have achieved over the years is undeniable.

Consequently, bookmakers have been quick to adopt mobile money service into their platform and other digital payment services to enable customers to deposit and withdraw through their mobile money account at the comfort of their home and receive payment. The mobile money technology has been able to solve the pain point issue for customers having not to go through stress; with just their mobile device, customers can load money directly into a mobile wallet, which they can use more like an online bank account by depositing, withdrawing, funds, transfer and pay bills among others turning out to be the first choice of the African people to complete transactions online.

As mentioned earlier, the iGaming industry is no exception to this impact of mobile money influx acceptance. It is, of course, been crucial to the iGaming industry that has seen a surge in the proliferation of iGaming betting and gambling with the increasing numbers of customers prefer using their mobile device to place bet thanks to the competitive mobile market landscape making it affordable for African population the penetration rate of smartphone users, which is expected to reach 690 million by 2050. Though, mobile-first is now the new norm of tools for the young African population to carry out all their activities online.

Therefore, the region iGaming sphere has been experiencing unprecedented growth, of which 40 percent of the total betting GGR in Africa is via mobile. Even though it’s more likely to surpass the estimated figure looking at the current COVID-19 crisis has pushed digitalization even closer and looking at the numbers of people who went online during the related lockdown, the region iGaming industry looks even more of the first choice for the betting enthusiast. Simultaneously, mobile money would continue to be the first choice for an underserved group in Africa.

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Adeleye Awakan

Author E-play Africa, sports betting reviews, thoughtful leardership articles in Africa gambling industry, marketing gaming platforms in Africa with strong networking relationship with gaming operators in Africa, Expertise in PR, marketing communication, and consultant on gaming in Africa.

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Adeleye Awakan

Author E-play Africa, sports betting reviews, thoughtful leardership articles in Africa gambling industry, marketing gaming platforms in Africa with strong networking relationship with gaming operators in Africa, Expertise in PR, marketing communication, and consultant on gaming in Africa.