Ivorian mobile money agents hit by cash shortage
Côte d’Ivoire now has over 400,000 mobile money service points, according to the Agency for the Promotion of Financial Inclusion — that is 300 times the total number of ATMs in the country. Ivorians use these kiosks daily to deposit salaries and withdraw cash, but agents often face liquidity shortages that hurt their business.
Late afternoon in the Angré Château district. It is time for shopping or commuting, but at this busy intersection, the mobile money booth is out of cash. Rosette is resigned — she came to withdraw 10,000 CFA francs (about 15 euros). “When you come, they don’t have what you need. It happens, so we deal with it,” she says.
Sitting inside the yellow kiosk, cashier Nema keeps customers waiting: “Some days there are many withdrawals and we run out of cash. We apologize and tell clients we are in deposit-only mode.”
Rather than queue, some customers go elsewhere. Affoué, the booth manager and former accountant, sees each lost customer as lost income: “You lose the client, and you lose their commission. That is why we must take good care of clients so commissions grow and we can make a net profit.”
Lost customers, lost profitability
Mobile money operators — such as Orange, Moov, MTN and Wave — pay commissions to booth managers. For example, they earn between 20 and 60 CFA francs (3 to 9 euro cents) per transaction of 10,000 CFA francs (15 euros). The more transactions and the higher their value, the greater the agents’ income.
The system breaks down when cash or credit runs short. Agents must close shop to restock from operators or banks. “They lose customers, they don’t earn enough commissions, it’s not profitable, and they have to shut down to go to distributors,” says a source close to the sector.
Motorcycles for faster restocking
Gertrude Yapi, operations director at Leya, an Abidjan-based startup, has set up a cash-in-transit service using motorcycles to supply mobile money points. “We provide credit in under four minutes and deliver cash in less than 30 minutes to satisfy customers. We help sales points increase their turnover by 50%,” she explains. Leya now claims over 3,000 active clients in four Ivorian cities: Abidjan, Bondoukou, Bouaké and Korhogo.
Economist Kassoum Timité stresses that service continuity is crucial for the broader economy. “Mobile money directly reaches the population in the informal sector, which accounts for the largest share of economic activity in Côte d’Ivoire — up to 40% of GDP, according to the IMF. A lack of liquidity will slow transactions, and economic activity will decline as well.”
In 2024, more than 140 billion CFA francs (over 210 million euros) were exchanged daily via mobile money, according to the Ivorian financial inclusion agency — nearly four times the volume in 2020.
