WAVE Money has set a new record as WavePayapplication crossed 1.1million monthly active users in October. With a remittance value reaching 8 Trillion Myanmar Kyat (US$5.9 billion) from January to September 2020, Myanmar’s leading mobile financial services provider posted an impressive daily average growth of 162% in new WavePay registrations by comparison to January 2020.
Reported in accordance with the internationally-recognized metrics of the GSM Association (GSMA), Wave Money reflects the strong market opportunity and rapid adoption of mobile money in Myanmar. “This is a very exciting milestone because it’s a positive indicator not only of our performance but the health of the industry as a whole and how people are embracing digital. In line with our vision of creating a fairer future for Myanmar, we couldn’t be happier knowing that mobile money is now a big part of their daily lives,” said Brad Jones, CEO of Wave Money.
An active mobile money account is a mobile money account which has been used to conduct at least one transaction during a certain period of time of either 30 days or 90 days, according to GSMA, the world’s largest industry organization of mobile network operators.
In its 2019 State of the Industry Report (SOTIR), GSMA noted that customers used their mobile money accounts more often and as part of their daily activities. At the end of last year, 35.8% of some 372 million accounts were active on a 90- day basis.
The gap between activity on a 30-day and 90-day basis is narrowing, the report said, with 70% of 90-day active accounts now active on a monthly basis. GSMA predicts that by 2025, the number of monthly mobile money customer accounts would surpass 370 million, the level where 90-day accounts were at last year.
“Although COVID-19 has no doubt heightened our digital dependence this year, the digital lifestyle is definitely here to stay. Mobile money usage will continue to rapidly rise even post-pandemic as the people are enjoying the many benefits –convenient, secure and safe cash remittances, quick and easy payment, and access to a wide range financial services particularly among the unbanked. In Myanmar greater financial inclusion has changed the lives of millions, including thousands of agents nationwide,” Brad Jones added.
Wave Money paid more than 62 Billion Myanmar Kyat (US$46 million) in commissions to agents during the January to September 2020 period alone. With coverage of 89% of the country, Wave Money is the largest MFS provider and undisputed market leader. Unparalleled service and expertise, cutting-edge technology, and a strong network of more than 64,000 agents has enabled the company tomaintain the trust of customers:merchants, government agencies, non-government and humanitarian organizations.
Disbursements from the government and NGO sectors represented a substantial share of the total remittance value in 2020, driven largely by COVID-19 relief funds. As of the end of September, Wave Money transferred more than 17 billion Myanmar Kyat (US$13 million) as payment partner of governments and NGOs. It has committed to waive all service fees for the disbursement of funds to those hard-hit by the pandemic for the duration of the crisis. Since March, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people including garment workers, civil servants, and farmers, have been digitally receiving emergency funds using WavePay.
GNLM