15/02/2019. Remember, at the end of 2016, the Stileex Post team organized an online survey on Mobile Money in Madagascar (click here to discover this survey). Here we are again today with a new poll on the same subject, but this time we took to the streets of the capital to question Tananarivians directly. What you will read in this article is the results of our survey on Mobile Money in Madagascar, conducted in late 2018.
Table of contents
- Less than half of Tananarivians have a Mobile Money account
- The popularity of Mobile Money solutions
- The use of Mobile Money accounts by the Tananarivians
- The average amount of transactions made through a Mobile Money account
- Mobile Money in Madagascar: conclusion of this survey on the habits of the Tananarivians
Less than half of Tananarivians have a Mobile Money account
There are currently three Malagasy mobile operators that offer their customers a Mobile Money service in Madagascar :
- Telma with Mvola
- Airtel with Airtel Money
- and Orange with Orange Money
It emerged from our survey that 40% of Tananarivians have a Mobile Money account with one or more of these operators.
The 60% who do not have one cite more or less nuanced reasons to explain their choice to stay out of the system:
- 64% say they don’t need it
- 26% find Mobile Money complicated
- 6% do not have a phone
- and finally 3% just don’t like Mobile Money.
It should be noted that 1% did not give an opinion.
The popularity of Mobile Money solutions
Looking at users’ favourite Mobile Money solutions, we find that Mvola is the most popular with 68% of users surveyed having an account there.
Next in second place is Airtel Money, with which 35% of respondents have an account, and finally Orange Money, with 18%. Note that in 2016, if Mvola was still first, Orange Money was still ahead of Airtel Money.
We also wanted to find out which Mobile Money solution was the most used by our respondents on a daily basis and Mvola came out on top with 64% of the respondents favoring it. The second place was taken by Airtel Money, used by 26% of them, and finally, in the last place, Orange Money, used by 10%.
The use of Mobile Money accounts by the Tananarivians
From this survey on Mobile Money in Madagascar, it also emerged that the vast majority of people use it mainly to receive and send money: 90% and 85% respectively use it for these two purposes.
26% then use it as a dormant account (i.e. there is money in the account, but the owner does not make any transactions) and 20% use it mainly to buy credit. We also saw that only a small 2% use their Mobile Money account to make purchases (Jirama invoice, subscriptions or various purchases, etc.) and that only 1% of users use their account mainly to receive money from abroad.
The survey also revealed that only 19% of Tananarivians had a bank account linked to their Mobile Money account and that a majority of users find Mobile Money easy to handle! Indeed, 85% of the respondents with a Mobile Money account think that the system is easy to use. Then, 11% find it relatively simple, finally, only a small 3% find the system difficult to use on a daily basis.
The average amount of transactions made through a Mobile Money account
We also wanted to know the average amount of a transaction carried out by Tananarivians on their Mobile Money account in Madagascar, whether they receive or send money.
It turned out that for 48% (slightly less than half) of Tananarivians, this amount is between 10,000 and 50,000 ar. Then for 24%, this amount is between 50,000 and 100,000 ar.
For the rest of the users, the amounts are divided as follows :
- 7%: between 100,000 and 200,000 ar
- 7%: between 200,000 and 600,000 ar
- 4%: more than 600,000 ar
- 4%: less than 10,000 ar
It should be noted, however, that 7% of respondents did not want to answer this question.
Mobile Money in Madagascar: conclusion of this survey on the habits of the Tananarivians
If, in parallel to this survey, we refer to our survey on banks in Madagascar, we can deduce one thing: the number of people who have a bank account in the capital is almost similar to the number of people who have a Mobile Money account (39% and 40% respectively).
When we also know that only 39% have a bank account and that 19% of people who have a Mobile Money account link it to a bank account, we think that’s not bad. Especially when you know that not all banks allow this (there is the BFV, the BNI and the BOA to my knowledge).
We also note that paying for purchases with a Mobile Money account is still very far from the habits of the Tananarivians (2%) while sending and receiving money are by far the main uses of a Mobile Money account. This was already the case in 2016 and this is normal given that local money transfer remains the first (and only?) attraction that Mobile Money has at the moment.
We also note that for 48% of users, the average transaction amount is between 10,000 and 50,000 ar, i.e. small amounts. This average has decreased since in 2016, most (49%) made transactions between 50,000 and 200,000 ar (to be fairer in this comparison, the class of 50,000 to 200,000 ar concerned only 32% of users in 2018).
But if there is one thing operators can be pleased about, it is that using Mobile Money in Madagascar is easy, as evidenced by the 85% of users surveyed.
Finally, it should be noted that the uses, the amounts and the user experience remain essentially the same regardless of the solutions examined. Basically, whether it’s Airtel Money, Mvola, or Orange Money, there are no obvious differences between these solutions, or even with the general trend.
