State of Mobile Money in Malawi: opportunities, barriers and impact

Following our exploration of the evolution of Mobile Money in Zambia we thought we would look at other countries in the region taking the same approach. Our second destination is Malawi, a country that currently has an estimated 20.6 million inhabitants and saw mobile money introduced in the early 2010s.

Malawi has two main mobile money service providers: Airtel Money and TNM Mpamba. Airtel Money is a subsidiary of Airtel Malawi, which is part of the Bharti Airtel Group, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. TNM Mpamba is a subsidiary of TNM (Telekom Networks Malawi), which is the first and largest mobile network operator in Malawi.

Airtel Money was launched in 2012 and TNM Mpamba was launched in 2013. Both services operate on a similar model, where customers can register for a mobile money account for free at any authorized agent, and then use their phones to perform various transactions. Customers can also link their mobile money accounts to their bank accounts or debit cards for more convenience.

Services offered by mobile money in Malawi?

Mobile money in Malawi offers a range of services, such as: