Socioeconomic dynamics in mobile money services in Egypt: an empirical analysis

The recent growth of mobile money (MM) in Africa, has allowed millions of people who are otherwise disqualified from the formal financial system to perform financial transactions relatively cheaply, securely, and reliably. In Egypt, however, despite the fact that mobile penetration rate amounts to almost 100 %, MM services penetration rate is still quite low around 1 %, and more importantly with minimal impact on the Egyptian economy at large. Thus, this research paper examines the socioeconomic adoption factors of MM services in Egypt using a Nielsen syndicated survey of MM users. This survey was conducted in April 2015 on a sample of 953 mobile money users. The findings of the empirical study reveal that the profile of a mobile money user in Egypt is similar to his Kenyan counterpart; namely an affluent, university educated and male user. However, the theory of early adopters is not evident in Egypt’s case. Urbanization plays no role in the socioeconomic adoption factors controlled for in the estimated model. The empirical model also shows that, according to the survey, the perception of Islamic financial rules does not contradict with the adoption of MM services in Egypt. Finally policy recommendations are provided for the regulator and the telecom operators, drawing from other successful case studies in this domain.