South African mobile banking Up 17% Since 2010

Mobile banking in South Africa now is used by 44 percent of urban mobile phone users, up from 27 percent in 2010, according to a study by World Wide Worx.

In smaller towns, 27 percent now use cellphone banking, suggesting that rural areas lag urban users by about a year in take-up of these services. In total, 37 percent of South Africans in urban and rural areas aged 16 and above now use mobile banking.

The vast majority of mobile banking customers still use the basic services, such as balance enquiries (78 percent) and notifications (58 percent).

However, transactional services are for the first time major components of use, with half of respondents buying airtime, 24 percent paying accounts, and 17 percent transferring funds between accounts. Some 12 percent of users sendmoney to other individuals and 11 percent make purchases using their mobile phones.

Cellphone banking surges | World Wide Worx