January 2026: 321 million wallet transactions, yet 467,000 fewer e-money accounts

January 31, 2026

Mozambique’s wallets ran a third above their 2025 monthly pace in January, while the registered account count slipped.

In January 2026 Mozambique’s electronic money institutions processed 321.3 million transactions worth MT199.4bn, according to the Banco de Moçambique’s monthly statistical summary. In the same month their account count fell from 25,473,998 to 25,006,542, a drop of 467,456 or 1.8%.

Those two movements point in opposite directions, and the gap between them is the story. The 2025 annual total of 2.89 billion transactions averages 241 million a month; January ran a third above that. Usage is deepening while the headline account number retreats, and a business planning around wallets should trust the first signal over the second.

A cumulative table, read carefully

January is the first clean month because the table restarts each year.

The wallet table in the February 2026 summary carries a new 2026 column that starts at zero on 1 January and runs year to date. Its first reading is therefore January alone: 82.2 million deposits worth MT56.5bn, 43.3 million withdrawals worth MT34.4bn, 170.9 million transfers worth MT105.1bn and 24.8 million service payments worth MT3.4bn.

The account row works differently. The bank’s own footnote labels the wallet figure a proxy, the number of subscribers, so it counts registered wallets and not people who used one this month. A wallet tied to an unused SIM card leaves the count only when the operator closes it. The Banco de Moçambique does not explain the January fall, and the likeliest reading, a clear-out of dormant subscriptions, is an inference and should be handled as one.

The ticket shrank to MT620

More transactions of smaller size describe a wallet used for everyday errands.

Divide the 2025 value of about MT2.47 trillion by the 2025 count and the average transaction comes to roughly MT854. January’s average was MT620. Transfers, the largest line, averaged MT615; deposits MT687; withdrawals MT795; service payments only MT138.

The mix explains part of it. Transfers between wallets and accounts made up 53% of January’s count against 47% across 2025. Person-to-person sends are small and frequent, and each one counts as a transaction even when the sum is a few hundred meticais. For a shop owner the practical reading is that a wallet customer arrives with a small, exact sum, not a large one.

Agents carry the cash, and the tax bill just changed

The field network grew by 8,063 in a month as agent commissions became taxable at source.

The agent count reached 454,667 at the end of January from 446,604 in December, according to the same table. An agent earns a commission on each cash-in and cash-out, and holds electronic float against the cash in the till. Every deposit adds to float demand at the receiving agent and every withdrawal draws it down.

A law dated 29 December 2025 amended the personal income tax code so that commissions earned by electronic money agents face a final withholding tax of 10%, as DLA Piper Africa’s Mozambique note records. Procedures for collecting it still await regulations. The Ministério da Economia e Finanças had already signalled in August 2025 that agent commissions were in its sights, as the Club of Mozambique reported. A 10% cut in take-home commission changes the arithmetic of a rural kiosk that adds wallet services as a sideline.

Where the banks fit

Bank accounts held by individuals rose while wallets fell.

Individual bank accounts, men and women combined, moved from 6,267,118 to 6,378,689 in the month, an increase of 111,571. Readers who sell on credit or run payroll should note that the two systems are not substitutes yet. The Banco de Moçambique’s e-money statistics page tracks the wallets, while the bank series sits in the January summary, and the two grew in opposite directions. A supplier who insists on bank transfers loses the wallet customer; one who accepts only wallets misses a growing pool of salaried buyers.

Set your wallet plan on transactions, not accounts. Price for a MT600 to MT800 basket, keep a cash-in agent within reach of the till, and check the 10% commission rule with your agent partners before signing a float arrangement. Read February’s release for the second month of the account trend.