In less than a decade, Mozambique has made an unprecedented leap in digital financial inclusion: the rate of adults with accounts at Electronic Money Institutions (IME) rose from 28.6% in 2015 to an impressive 109.8% in the first quarter of 2025. The figures, released on Wednesday by the Minister of Finance, Carla Loveira, show that the country has reached the symbolic mark of 100% coverage of the adult population with digital accounts, although 26 districts still have no bank branch at all.

“Digital electronic money has proved to be the driving force behind financial inclusion in Mozambique”, the minister said at the official launch of the new National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2025–2031, in Maputo. Loveira highlighted the central role of digital wallets, operated by the country’s three mobile telecommunications companies, which today allow money transfers and payment for services by mobile phone, even in remote areas.

According to the Bank of Mozambique, the total number of bank accounts in the country rose from 5.6 million in 2023 to about 6.2 million at the end of 2024. However, the growth of IMEs was significantly higher, reaching 19.8 million accounts – almost three million more in just one year.

Reviewing the previous strategy, which ran from 2016 to 2022, the minister noted progress: 128 of Mozambique’s 154 districts now have at least one bank branch, an increase of 68% compared with 2015. However, the pace of formal bank access remained slow: the percentage of adults with a bank account rose only from 31.1% to 32.3% between 2015 and early 2025 – well short of the 60% target set in the previous strategy.

The economic analysis also showed that the financial savings rate (measured by the ratio of deposits to GDP) registered a slight increase, from 47.6% to 48.8%. The financial intermediation ratio, however, fell “significantly”, from 36.4% in 2015 to 17.1% in 2025. “This dynamic illustrates the challenge facing the banking sector to improve its contribution to financing the economy”, Loveira stressed.

The new strategy, in force until 2031, rests on four pillars: broadening access to financial services, promoting digital payments, strengthening financial education, and expanding insurance and green finance. One of the main targets is to ensure that, by 2031, 60% of the adult population have a formal bank account, and that 30% of that group have credit from a financial institution.

The Government also intends to tackle structural obstacles, such as the high cost of banking services and the financing of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which make up 98.1% of the country’s business fabric. The inclusion of the informal sector and low-income households is another acknowledged challenge, in a context in which macroeconomic stability, with controlled inflation and exchange rates, is identified as an essential foundation for the strategy’s success.