Cameroon remains the leading Mobile Money market in Central Africa, strengthening its position in 2024 even as competition across the region intensifies.
According to a report on payment services published by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), the country accounted for 65.1% of all Mobile Money accounts in the CEMAC zone—Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and the Central African Republic—up from 62.1% in 2023.
Cameroon also represented 57% of the total value of Mobile Money transactions in the region. However, this share declined from 63.58% a year earlier, pointing to faster growth in other markets.
As of December 31, 2024, more than 51.2 million Mobile Money accounts were recorded across CEMAC, a 28% increase year over year. Of these, 30.9 million were in Cameroon, up by more than 6 million accounts compared with 24.86 million in 2023.
The BEAC attributes this growth to the broader adoption of mobile banking applications. These tools now allow users to hold Mobile Money accounts alongside traditional bank accounts, expanding access to digital financial services.
Technological changes have also made it easier to open accounts. Payment accounts are no longer tied to a single telecom operator, meaning users can now open multiple Mobile Money accounts using the same phone number with different providers.
These shifts have driven both transaction volumes and values higher across the region.
In 2024, the number of Mobile Money transactions in CEMAC rose by 6.42% to reach 3.7 billion. The total value increased more sharply, climbing 20.33% to CFA34,778.5 billion.
Cameroon alone accounted for CFA26,773 billion of that total—nearly four times the combined value recorded in Congo and Gabon.
The central bank points to several factors behind this expansion, including promotional campaigns by payment providers, renewed activity from some operators, the growth of interoperability between financial institutions, the spread of small-value payments, and the rollout of new services such as microloans and international transfers.
Brice R. Mbodiam
