Why East Africa’s Digital Finance Revolution Hasn’t Replicated Elsewhere

By Twin Philemon, Friday 6th February 2026 11:00 hrs EAT.

For us, mobile money is not just a “fintech solution” or an “alternative payment method”; it is simply how money moves. A market vendor sends school fees and upkeep(read pocket money) to her daughter upcountry. A taxi driver pays for fuel using his phone. Friends settle a lunch bill with a few taps before standing up from the table. Rent, salaries, groceries, transport, utilities all pass through a mobile wallet without ceremony. Cash exists, banks exist, but mobile money is the connective tissue of daily commerce in this part of Africa.

Mobile money, as East Africa knows it, emerged in the mid-2000s as a telecom-led experiment. When Safaricom launched M-Pesa (“M” for mobile, “Pesa” meaning money in Swahili) in Kenya in 2007, it was not pitched as a grand financial revolution. It was a practical tool for moving small amounts of money quickly between people who were already using mobile phones but had limited access to formal banking. Uganda followed a similar path, with MTN MoMo and Airtel Money building systems that looked less like banks and more like infrastructure — reliable, simple, and everywhere. These three (mpesa, momo & airtel money) are the household names, the default platforms upon which our digital economy is being built. 

What mattered most was not innovation, but reach. Telecoms already had national distribution, trusted brands, and an agent footprint that extended into places banks had never seriously served. Mobile money did not ask people to change their behavior; it formalized what they were already doing let it be sending money home, pooling funds or paying small traders making it safer and faster.

Regulation, often overlooked, played a decisive role. In East Africa, regulators allowed mobile money to grow before fully defining it. This sequencing was critical. Instead of forcing new services into old banking frameworks, authorities observed usage, identified risks, and gradually tightened oversight. In Uganda today, mobile money sits under the same central bank supervision as banks, but it was not born there. That flexibility created room for adoption before formality.

East Africa’s mobile money landscape is one of extraordinary saturation, with over 1,100 registered accounts for every 1,000 adults, a clear indicator of people holding multiple accounts (Ziteke ku MTN, Ku Airtel bambajja). To outsiders, many assume mobile money succeeded here because of superior technology, clever telecoms, or aggressive marketing. The truth is less flattering and more instructive: mobile money succeeded because it filled a vacuum that banks did not, could not, or would not fill at the time. For instance unsecured loans were rare, but today Wewole and Mokash provide quick cash via mobile money.

Contrast this with much of West Africa, mobile money just hasn’t become part of everyday life the way it has here. On paper, it should work: large populations, high mobile phone penetration and informal economies but the reality is different. Banks were already handling most payments, cash, microfinance institutions and local informal savings systems were strong, and mobile money arrived as a “nice-to-have” rather than a must-have. Regulations were stricter, agent networks slower to grow, and no single platform took off enough to create the kind of network everyone uses. The result isn’t failure, it’s simply that mobile money never became the backbone of daily transactions like it did in East Africa. Mobile money exists in West Africa, but Technologies that are optional rarely become infrastructure.

Looking beyond Africa makes the contrast clearer. In much of Asia, mobile money thrives  but it looks nothing like East Africa’s model. In China and India, digital wallets are app-based, tightly integrated with banks, e-commerce platforms, and social networks. Payments are driven by QR codes, instant bank rails, and super-app ecosystems. Here, mobile money does not replace banks; it digitizes them. East Africa built mobile money in the absence of banks. Asia built it on top of them.


This difference in origin shapes economic impact. In East Africa, mobile money has lowered transaction costs, increased economic visibility, and pulled millions into formal financial systems without forcing them into traditional banking. Small businesses operate with greater liquidity. Households move money more efficiently. Governments gain clearer insight into flows that once moved entirely in cash.


But dependence on telecom-led financial infrastructure also raises new questions. Market concentration, pricing power, consumer protection, and systemic risk are now live policy issues. As mobile money becomes infrastructure, it must be governed like infrastructure.

That transition is already underway. In Uganda, tighter central bank oversight signal a maturing sector. Mobile money is no longer an alternative to the financial system; it is part of it.

The future is not about mobile money as a standalone product. It’s about its evolution into the central nervous system of a digital economy, better regulation, lower costs and deeper financial products such as Direct bank integration with mobile money wallets, we are seeing virtual and physical Mastercard/Visa cards linked directly to your MoMo wallet for global shopping.

The question is no longer whether mobile money works, but how responsibly and competitively it can scale.

Ultimately, mobile money did not take off in East Africa because East Africa was unusually innovative. It took off because the region needed it more, sooner, and allowed it to grow before fully defining it. Other regions followed different paths, shaped by different financial histories.

From Uganda, mobile money feels inevitable. From elsewhere, it may still feel optional. That difference explains almost everything.