Mobile Money Agent Networks: The Cash-In Cash-Out Economy Underpinning African Fintech
Kenya
Financial Services
Safaricom M-Pesa operates approximately 298,890 agents serving 35.82 million customers and KSh 38.29 trillion in FY25 transaction volume. OPay and PalmPay have built comparable agent networks in Nigeria. Uganda's Agent Banking Company supports over 20,000 shared agent outlets. Agents are the bridge between digital money and cash economies. Inside the unit economics, fraud problems, and the reason mobile money cannot work without them.
Digital financial services in Africa run on smartphones, APIs, and cloud infrastructure. But the money itself, the cash that customers deposit at the start of the journey and withdraw at the end, runs through physical agents: small shop owners, kiosk operators, market traders, and dedicated mobile money agents who exch...
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