Nine months nearly matched twelve: Mozambique’s wallets reached 98.7% of 2024’s value

October 31, 2025

MT1.75 trillion moved through electronic money by the end of September, and the count has already passed all of 2024.

Mozambique’s electronic money institutions had moved MT1.75 trillion by the end of September 2025, nine months of activity against MT1.78 trillion for the whole of 2024. The count had already passed last year: 2.57 billion operations against 2.27 billion, according to Banco de Moçambique’s October monthly statistical summary. The wallet economy was 1.3% short of last year’s value with three months still to run.

One line is well behind. Service payments, the bills and purchases paid from a wallet, had reached 209.7 million operations worth MT28.5bn, against 255.7 million and MT37.1bn in all of 2024. Transfers passed their 2024 totals months ago. The channel that lets a wallet pay a shop or a utility is the last to arrive, and the fourth quarter will show whether it catches up.

Nine months against twelve

Transfers reached 1.22 billion operations, 32% above the whole of 2024.

The October summary, which carries data to September, gives cumulative 2025 totals against 2024. Deposits: 716.7 million operations against 647.3 million. Withdrawals: 423.0 million against 440.5 million. Transfers: 1,221.9 million against 922.9 million, and MT843.0bn in value against MT777.1bn. Deposits and transfers have run furthest ahead because they are the operations that feed a wallet and empty it between people.

Value tells a slightly different story from count. Deposits, at MT531.1bn, and withdrawals, at MT349.7bn, are still below their 2024 values of MT551.3bn and MT410.7bn even though deposits lead on count. Transfers alone carry the aggregate, and they average MT690 each, close to the MT681 average across all four operation types.

Why payments lag transfers

A transfer needs two people. A payment needs a business to integrate.

A person-to-person transfer works the day two subscribers hold wallets, and the institutions reported 24.03 million wallet accounts at September, up from 20.46 million at the end of 2024. A service payment needs a biller to publish a merchant code, reconcile receipts against its own ledger and train counter staff, a fixed cost paid before the first customer uses it. That is why the channel grows in steps rather than on a curve.

Service payments have averaged about 23.3 million operations a month in 2025 at roughly MT135 each, below the MT145 average of 2024. At that pace the count passes 2024’s 255.7 million in November, but the value of MT37.1bn is not reached before December. The line needs 46.0 million more operations and MT8.6bn more value, so the year-end comparison turns on whether billers keep coming on board.

More outlets, more cards, more risk

Agents reached 415,630 and POS terminals 32,806, and merchants are the ones checking balances.

The network was large and still growing. The October summary lists 415,630 electronic money agents at September, 32,806 POS terminals and 1,360 ATMs. The central bank’s third-quarter inclusion indicators showed electronic money agents up 8.6% in the quarter while bank-operated agents fell 70.6%, as commercial banks discontinued the channel. e-Mola, which calls itself the country’s largest wallet, signed on in late October as strategic partner of the BFSI Mozambique conference of 27-28 November, themed on an interoperable financial ecosystem.

Volume attracts fraud. Carta de Moçambique reported on 6 October that criminals sent shopkeepers forged transfer confirmations, then had couriers collect the goods, in one case worth MT30,000. The national criminal investigation service, SERNIC, said its last recorded case was in 2022, and urged merchants to verify that funds have actually reached the account before releasing goods.

The action for a merchant this quarter

Accept wallet payments, and never treat a message as money.

A shop, distributor or utility that wants the last-mile share of 210 million service payments should accept wallets now and train every till operator on one rule: goods leave only after the credit shows in the business’s own wallet or bank app, never on the customer’s screenshot or text. Where volumes justify it, ask the operator for an API or merchant-terminal confirmation that removes the manual check.

For the fourth quarter, watch two numbers. A monthly count of service payments above 23 million would confirm the 2025 pace is holding. An average ticket near MT680 would show the small-ticket drift has stopped. Budget agent float and tax exposure ahead of both, because the government said in August that agent commissions are heading for taxation.