Abstract
Mobile money has expanded rapidly across Sub-Saharan Africa, accompanied by increasing mobile phone ownership and a growing number of registered users. Despite this, there is a concern about its effects on well-being. It has been argued that mobile money favoured those who were already financially included and financially stable. Therefore, the study used the Global Findex 2021 database, with a sample of 22686 respondents, to analyse the effects of mobile money on well-being and disaggregated the results by sex and location. The study employed binary probit regression and the results indicated that mobile phone ownership is not significantly associated with economic well-being; rather, a mobile money account has a positive association (P-value < 0.01). The study recommends that governments, in collaboration with mobile phone operators, focus on improving mobile money infrastructure to ensure reliable networks, secure technology platforms, and cost-effective means that will attract more use of mobile money. This will change the way people do financial transactions, and subsequently affect their lives.
Recommended Citation
Joseph, Emanuel Sulle; Chegere, Martin; and Mdadila, Kenneth
(2026)
"Mobile Money and Economic Wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from the 2021 Global Findex Survey,"
Tanzanian Economic Review: Vol. 16:
Iss.
1, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65085/2507-7740/1029
Available at:
https://commons.udsm.ac.tz/ter/vol16/iss1/2
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