Mobile money development deprive rural Malawi
Eleven years after the the introduction of mobile money platforms in the country to help advance the financial inclusion agenda, Malawi is still struggling to attain her goals.
This is according to the latest data from Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) which shows that out of 284 355 mobile money agents, only 23.2 percent or 66 050 are in rural areas where about 80 percent of the country’s population reside.
However, of the few that have registered to ply their trade in rural areas, about 52.8 percent were active over a 90-day period, compared to 160 607 in urban and semi-urban areas, representing 73.6 percent.
United Nations Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory member Bram Fudzulani said this punches a lot of holes in the country’s drive to financially include the rural masses.
He said: “There’s a lot that needs to be done to address this financial inclusion drive with regards to the agents network. The government needs to look at this from other perspectives.
“We have seen how the government has tried to close the digital divide gap, especially with cellphone signal coverage by way of investing on behalf of the telecom companies by erecting towers in the hard to reach areas that have weak or no signal at all.”
In its second quarter National Payment Systems Report, RBM concedes that most agents seem to shun operating in rural areas due to, among others, low transaction volumes which may not make business sense for them.
