Payments by mobile phones soar to hit Rs6.5 billion

The volume of financial transactions via mobile phones (mobile banking) reached Rs 6.5 billion at the end of November 2021. This represents an increase of 122% over one year and 172% since 2019, Defi Medi reported.

The number of mobile banking subscribers reached 1.3 million at the end of 2021, an increase of 40,000 compared to 2020 and an increase of 178,000 subscribers compared to 2019.

More than 3 million transactions were recorded during the month of November 2021 for a total amount of Rs 6.5 billion, against Rs 2.9 billion in November 2020 and Rs 2.3 billion at the end of 2019.

The number of agents accepting mobile payment is also growing. They were 2,109 at the end of 2019, to increase to 3,588 a year later, and 4,026 last November.

On the other hand, the number of credit cards in circulation in Mauritius is going down from nearly 300,000 (November 2019) to 250,453 at the end of last November.

Comparatively, the number of debit cards rose to 1.5 million compared to 1.4 million in November 2020 and 1.3 million at the end of 2019.