May 2025: Mozambique’s wallet cash-outs shrink to MT814 as transfers near MT100bn

May 31, 2025

Customers took cash out more often and in smaller pieces, and the balance left behind grew to MT21.6bn in a single month.

The average e-money withdrawal in Mozambique fell to MT814 in May 2025 from MT878 in April, even as the number of withdrawals rose 6.7% to 50.7 million, according to the Banco de Moçambique’s wallet statistics. Customers took cash out more often and in smaller pieces.

The balance they left behind grew. Deposits of MT62.81bn outran withdrawals of MT41.22bn by MT21.58bn, the widest gap in the five months of the series, while wallet-to-wallet transfers reached 140.9 million operations worth MT99.94bn, a whisker under MT100bn.

The pattern in the tickets

Every cash line shrank per transaction while the count rose.

The average deposit slipped from MT796 to MT757, and the average withdrawal from MT878 to MT814. The withdrawal count climbed from 47.5 million to 50.7 million, but their value fell 1.1% to MT41.22bn. Transfers held at an average of MT709, and bill payments eased from MT148 to MT143 across 22.7 million operations.

The month’s total was 297.3 million transactions worth MT207.23bn, up 9.2% and 6.8% on April. Per calendar day, volume rose 5.6%, so May was a genuinely busier month and not only a longer one.

Mechanism: cash-out is the scarce service

Each withdrawal drains an agent’s e-money float and refills its till, so smaller and more frequent cash-outs load the agent network harder.

An agent holds two stocks, notes and e-money float. A deposit adds float and takes notes; a withdrawal does the reverse. Frequent small withdrawals mean more visits to the counter for the same cash, and every visit needs the agent to have notes on hand. The network added only 1,698 agents in May, reaching 364,138, the smallest monthly gain of the year, so each agent carried about 816 transactions against 751 in April.

Balances themselves are claims on the three e-money institutions, and they move between customers, banks and other wallets on the national switch. AIM reported that all commercial banks and e-money institutions were integrated into that network from 19 November 2023, on the SIMOrede platform, with contactless technology required for cards and terminals.

Where the value sits

Transfers now carry 48.2% of all wallet value, up from 45.3% in March.

Transfers of MT99.94bn were 11.4% higher than April’s MT89.68bn, and they now carry a larger share of value than in any earlier month of the year. Nampula alone sent 29.0 million transfers worth MT15.13bn, and Niassa’s transfer count rose 11.4% to 6.2 million. Deposits and withdrawals together were MT104.03bn, so the wallet is used more to move money between people than to convert it to cash.

The Comité de Política Monetária cut the taxa MIMO by 75 basis points to 11.0% at the end of May, according to AIM’s report of the decision, citing prospects of single-digit inflation. A wallet balance has never paid interest, so each cut narrows what a customer gives up by leaving money in one, and May’s widening gap fits that direction. It is an inference from the numbers, not something the central bank has said.

Sell to the balance, not to the cash

MT21.6bn of net inflow is money that stayed inside the wallet system in one month.

A merchant should accept payment from that pool directly, priced under the MT800 to MT900 that customers already treat as a normal cash-out. Suppliers and sellers in provinces with few bank branches will collect more from a wallet checkout than from a request to carry cash to a counter.

Protect that pool. In a lecture on 13 June, cybersecurity specialist Mário Lavado told listeners, as AIM reported, to verify the authenticity of unknown contacts before answering them. A seller whose customers keep balances in wallets should publish one verified payment number and never ask for a PIN.