May 2026: Mozambique’s wallet withdrawals fell in number but the average rose to MT897

May 31, 2026

Wordless fine-line illustration: An agent's cash drawer with fewer but thicker bundles of notes being lifted out, while a phone on the counter glows steadily and a customer walks away toward a shop door rather than a queue

Fewer, larger cash-outs: the sign of a wallet economy that is learning to keep money in the wallet.

Cash withdrawals from Mozambique’s mobile wallets fell to 52.5 million in May 2026 from 53.6 million in April, while their value rose to MT47.1bn from MT45.9bn, according to the Banco de Moçambique monthly statistical summary. The average withdrawal therefore reached MT897, against MT795 in January, an increase of 13% in four months.

Total wallet activity was 386.5 million operations worth MT269.2bn, an average of MT696. A 31-day month gave a daily rate of 12.5 million operations, 2.4% below April’s 12.8 million, so May was a consolidation month for volume even as value climbed 3.7%.

Bigger notes out, smaller trips

Customers are visiting the agent less often and taking more each time.

Withdrawals fell 2.1% in count and rose 2.7% in value. The pattern is consistent with customers who keep balances in the wallet longer, pay some bills or transfers from balance, and cash out once rather than several times. Deposits, by contrast, were 97.9 million operations worth MT75.1bn, an average of MT768, unchanged from April’s average to the nearest metical.

Transfers reached 207.6 million operations and MT143.3bn, an average of MT690. Payments for services were 28.5 million operations and MT3.6bn, at MT128 each. The summary also shows 3,635,122 bank cards in circulation, 8,874 fewer than in April.

The mix beyond cash tells the same story. Transfers were 53.7% of operations in May, and deposits plus withdrawals together were 38.9%. Payments for services were 7.4%. The wallet is still mainly a device for moving money between people and between cash and balance, and the cash-out leg is where the customer chooses whether the money stays digital.

How a larger cash-out reshapes an agent’s day

The withdrawal ticket determines how much cash must be on the counter.

An agent holds two buffers: e-float, which is the electronic balance sold to customers who deposit, and notes, which are paid out to customers who withdraw. Every withdrawal consumes notes and returns float. When the average ticket rises from MT795 to MT897, the note buffer needed for the same number of customers rises 13%, with no change in customer count.

That is a working-capital cost borne by the agent, who must fund the extra notes, and it grows silently as ticket sizes rise. Agents with thin margins on small tickets face a worse trade than those who serve rural salary points.

Interoperability makes the wallet a destination

Since 2022 money can leave one issuer and land in another without passing through cash.

Since July 2022 the three wallets, M-Pesa, mKesh and e-Mola, have been interconnected under a Banco de Moçambique agreement, so a customer of one can pay a customer of another in meticais. The AIM report on that step framed it as e-money gaining ground on cash, which is what the May pattern of fewer, larger cash-outs looks like in numbers.

SPIM, the instant system that began operating in March, widened the same principle to bank accounts. A salary that lands in a bank can reach a wallet holder without a cash-out, and a wallet holder can pay a shop with a bank account without an agent visit.

A useful test for the next release: if the interconnected and instant rails are keeping value inside the system, withdrawals should keep falling as a share of transfers. In May the ratio was 0.25 withdrawals for each transfer, level with January’s 0.25 and below March’s 0.27 and April’s 0.26.

What to do with a rising ticket

Merchants should try to be the place where the balance is spent.

The withdrawal ticket has climbed in every month reported so far this year, from MT795 in January to MT897 in May. For a retailer this means the customer who arrives at your counter with a wallet balance also holds a larger cash-out that could be converted into a purchase instead.

The action is to offer wallet acceptance at the till and a small incentive, such as a reduced fee or a receipt-linked reward, aimed at the customer who would otherwise withdraw MT900 to spend at your shop. Agents and wholesalers should renegotiate float terms now, before the average crosses MT1,000.