Stanbic Mobile Money Zooms Past Paga In User Signups - Transaction Volume Is Next

StanbicIBTC Mobile Money

I see it, but I still find it hard to believe. At first.

According to a recent report, Stanbic Mobile Money has achieved -

• over 600,000 registered customers
• over 790 agents nationwide
• over 7.7million agent airtime transactions
• monthly transaction value of N1.3 billion.
• N5.6 billion in transactions since launch, a year ago (December, 2011). 

Interesting.

600k signups puts Stanbic MM way ahead of Paga in subscriber volume. Might it be even possible that Stanbic has more subscribers than all the other Nigerian MM operators combined? While that'd definitely make for a great headline, there's no way to know the actual position of things, because save for Paga and now Stanbic, no other mobile money operator has released any definite numbers.

The last recorded Paga stats are:

• over 330k registered users
• over 850 agents in 19 cities
• 6.7 billion naira in transaction volumes from inception to date (November, 2012) 

Coming from behind, Stanbic Mobile Money is obviously set to blow past Paga (and everybody else) on the Mobile Money racetrack -- that is if they haven't already. This latest Stanbic report also puts Paga's reputation as Nigeria's biggest mobile money operator in doubt. Both are practically neck-on-neck on the agent network strength. All that remains now is for Stanbic to shoot past in transaction volume, and that will be that.

All things considered, the N5.7bn number, compared to Paga's N6.7bn, might not be that hard to swallow. As a mobile money product, Paga isn't that much older than Stanbic -- both launched within months of each other (Paga in September, Stanbic in December, 2011). So if Stanbic doesn't feel like more than a few months old, it's probably because they didn't come out of the gate with their marketing horns blaring. They've turned up the volume of recent though, via a sustained barrage of SMS, electronic media and outdoor advertising.

A lot Stanbic's apparent traction can also be directly attributed to multiple (and confusing) telco partnerships...and that doesn't take into account, the number of existing bank customers that they have merely upsold on the mobile money product. 600k signups (in a whole year) must be the reward for that all that effort.

If we are to take this development as a sign of things to come, then it's becoming obvious that in the long run, bank-led mobile money products will overtake their third party counterparts. Their sheer scale in physical presence and brand awareness, as well as their various telco handshakes will go a long way to ensure it. It however remains to be seen if the apparent advantage will translate into significant gains for the Nigerian mobile money sector as a whole.

Bankole Oluwafemi

About the author.

"My name is Bankole. For some reason, people call me Lordbanks. Stay with me for practical, no frills, hard-hitting, in your face African tech talk. Follow me on Twitter here."