Mozambique: Electronic money institution profits leap over 40% to €31.9M

The three Mozambican Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), which operate via mobile phones, posted profits of 2.37 billion meticais (€31.9 million) in 2024, a 41.69% increase from the previous year, according to data obtained by Lusa on Friday.

According to a financial stability report by the Bank of Mozambique, this performance contrasts with the record one point six seven billion meticais (€22.5 million) in net profits posted by EMIs in 2023.

Commissions, which “by the nature of EMIa are decisive for the formation of results,” fell 2.71%, from 5.61 billion meticais (€75.6 million) in December 2023 to 5.46 billion meticais (€73.6 million) last year, the central bank document adds.

“In December 2024, the banking sector continued to mark activity with the development of new products, the expansion of financial services and digital distribution channels, as well as the growth of electronic money institutions,” it added.

Mozambique currently has three electronic money institutions, from the three mobile telecommunications operators, which provide financial services via mobile phones, including money transfers between customers or payment for services.

This solution facilitates and massifies the population’s access to financial services, utilising only mobile phones and EMI agents on the street.

The number of digital wallet agents in Mozambique surged again in the first quarter of 2025, reaching 351,921, according to official data reported by Lusa in June.

According to the latest report from the Bank of Mozambique on financial inclusion indicators, this represents coverage of 1,817 agents and 110 EMI accounts per 100,000 adults.

This coverage, which already reaches all 154 districts in the country, has been growing steadily, reaching a previous record at the end of 2024 of 1,686 IME agents per 100,000 adults, compared to just 350 in 2019.

At the end of 2024, the number of digital wallet agents in Mozambique stood at 315,005, according to the central bank’s records.

According to a previous statistical report by the Bank of Mozambique, the number of bank accounts in the country grew by 10% in 2024, from 5,687,975 at the end of 2023 to 6,221,640 in 1 December 2024, This development aligns with an 18.5% increase in EMIs during the same period, to 19,870,700, representing nearly three million new accounts in the space of a year.

Four years earlier, in 2020, the number of electronic money accounts was almost half that, standing at 10,833,801.

Lusa previously reported that Mozambique’s government intends to tax the commissions of agents and IMEs.

According to a government document on the actions taken in 2024, the government moved forward last year with the process of “taxing commissions” paid to agents and IMEs, drafting a bill that it has since submitted to parliament, while further details will be provided later.

It added, however, that two of the mobile wallet institutions “made data on their agents and super-agents at the national level available “to create a database with a view to “broadening the tax base and consequently increasing revenue collection in this segment of the digital economy”.