Mobile Money drives over 5% of Cameroon’s GDP ⁰

Mobile money has become a key part of Cameroon’s economy, now contributing more than 5% to the country’s GDP in recent years. This is one of the standout findings from the GSMA’s latest “State of the Mobile Money Industry” report. GSMA is a global association that represents the interests of more than 750 mobile operators and device makers around the world.

The report shows that Cameroon is among the top countries in Central Africa when it comes to mobile money’s share of GDP—on par with Congo and Gabon, where the contribution ranges between 5% and 8%. In Southern Africa, where mobile money isn’t as widely adopted, its share in the economy generally remains below 5%.

Cameroon is now nearly on the same level as some of Africa’s mobile money leaders like Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and even Kenya, which has long been seen as the global pioneer in mobile payments thanks to the launch of M-Pesa by Safaricom in 2007.

In fact, the GSMA notes that mobile money has had a bigger impact on GDP in West Africa than in any other part of the continent. In countries like Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Liberia, mobile money contributes more than 5% of GDP. The same goes for Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania in East Africa.

In Cameroon, this growing economic impact is backed by how much people are using the service. Mobile money usage among adults 15 and older jumped from 29.9% in 2017 to 42.7% in 2022, according to the country’s national statistics office (INS), which released these figures in April 2024. That’s a 12.8-point increase over five years.

Thanks to this rapid growth, Cameroon is now the clear leader in mobile money within the CEMAC region, which includes Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Central African Republic. The BEAC, the region’s central bank, reported that in 2022, Cameroon accounted for 71% of all mobile money transactions by number—about 1.7 billion—and 55% of the total value, amounting to CFA59,003 billion.

Congo came in second in terms of volume with 15% of transactions (around 364 million), while Gabon followed Cameroon in terms of transaction value with 15% (CFA16,164 billion).

Source: Business in Cameroon