• Sub-Saharan Africa hosts 52 % of the world’s mobile-money accounts, yet only 7 % of adults there borrowed via these services in 2024.
• GSMA and World Bank concur that strict regulation, low credit records and gender gaps curb mobile credit despite high account penetration.
• Kenya’s 2024 sandbox and Ghana’s guarantee pilot aim to lengthen tenors and raise loan sizes for women-led businesses using mobile data.

Sub-Saharan Africa is a global leader in mobile money, accounting for over half of the world’s registered mobile-money accounts, according to the GSMA’s 2025 State of the Industry Report. However, the 2025 World Bank Global Findex reveals that only 7% of adults in the region borrowed through these accounts in 2024, with many still relying on informal sources like family, friends, or rotating savings clubs for financial needs.

Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) face a significant financing gap, estimated by the International Finance Corporation to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, which mobile money has yet to meaningfully address. While mobile money has transformed payments and savings, it has not revolutionized credit access for most users.

Regulatory constraints are a key barrier. Central banks in countries like Kenya, Ghana, and Uganda impose strict oversight on digital lending, including limits on loan portfolios and interest-rate caps, to prevent over-indebtedness and fraud. As a result, mobile-money providers often treat credit as a secondary business, with lending contributing a small fraction of their revenue, primarily from transaction fees.

On the demand side, digital literacy poses challenges, particularly for women, who often require assistance to navigate credit interfaces. Additionally, credit bureau coverage remains low, with only a small percentage of adults in the region having formal credit records, limiting lenders’ ability to assess risk. The typical mobile loan is small—often below US$50, repayable within 30 days, with annualized interest rates exceeding 100%—making it suitable for emergencies but not for building working capital or productive assets.

Despite these challenges, mobile money presents significant commercial opportunities. The GSMA highlights that Sub-Saharan Africa’s 350 million monthly digital transactors offer a vast addressable market. By leveraging transaction-level data for credit scoring, providers could shift informal credit into formal channels, generating substantial interest income. For example, Safaricom’s M-Shwari, launched in 2012, serves millions of Kenyan borrowers using alternative credit-scoring based on airtime purchases and mobile-wallet activity, achieving low default rates comparable to commercial banks.

Policy developments are creating new opportunities. Kenya’s 2024 Digital Credit Regulations establish a regulatory sandbox, allowing telecoms and fintechs to test larger, longer-term loans under relaxed rules. Similarly, Ghana is piloting a government guarantee scheme to support digital lending to women-owned businesses. If successful, these initiatives could transform mobile money from a platform for small, short-term loans into a source of growth capital, unlocking Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic potential.

Idriss Linge