( 3 Minutes)
Cameroon consolidated its leadership in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) Mobile Money market in 2023, accounting for 62.11% of all accounts across the six member states, according to the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).
Out of 40 million Mobile Money accounts in CEMAC—up from 37 million in 2022—Cameroon alone recorded 24.86 million. The country was followed by Congo with 8.7 million accounts (21.84%) and Gabon with 3.6 million (9.15%). Chad saw its total fall from 3.61 million in 2022 to 2.13 million in 2023, following a cleanup of inactive customer data.
The number of Mobile Money accounts in Cameroon has risen steadily, from 19.5 million in 2020 to 21.6 million in 2022 and nearly 25 million in 2023—an increase of over 5 million in three years.
The BEAC report also shows that Cameroon dominated transaction volumes, accounting for 63.58% of the 3.52 billion Mobile Money operations recorded in the region in 2023, up from 2.41 billion in 2022. In value terms, Cameroon represented 76.57% of total CEMAC activity, followed by Gabon (12.99%) and Congo (7.93%).
At the regional level, the 30-day activity rate rose from 39.84% in 2022 to 42.67% in 2023, driven by Cameroon’s 47.04% rate of active accounts. The number of active users also increased by 7.81%, from 14.8 million in 2022 to 17.08 million in 2023, reflecting growing use of digital payments for everyday spending.
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According to BEAC, this expansion has been fueled by aggressive promotion campaigns from payment institutions and renewed engagement by service operators, which remain more numerous in Cameroon than in any other CEMAC country.
