LIVE FROM THE GSMA’S NFC & MOBILE MONEY SUMMIT, NEW YORK: There are now 208 mobile money for the unbanked services live in 83 countries, claims a new report from the GSMA. This compares to 178 deployments in 74 countries back in January. Moreover, an additional 117 services are expected to be switched on in the coming months.

The ‘2013 Mobile Money Adoption Survey’ highlights the increasingly competitive landscape for mobile money services. Globally, mobile money services were launched in nine markets in 2013 and the majority of these launches were in markets where mobile money services already existed.

The survey claims there are now at least two or more mobile money services available in 51 markets, compared to 40 markets at the end of 2012 and 33 at the end of 2011. Further, 24 of these markets each have three or more mobile money services. Such growth is enabling the financial inclusion of unbanked and under-banked people.

“Mobile money is now becoming a mainstream service for MNOs rather than a differentiator,” notes a GSMA statement. “This is especially true in Sub-Saharan Africa, which boasts 53 per cent of all live mobile money services and where services are available in 36 out of 47 countries in the region.”

“The findings show that the adoption of mobile money services by customers is rising and that an increasing number of services are reaching scale,” adds the statement. “The GSMA has identified three mobile money services that each exceeded 1 million active users between June 2012 and June 2013 and, globally, there are at least nine services that currently have more than 1 million active users.”