Mozambique: Digital mobile wallets replacing ATMs, sale payment terminals

ATM (automated teller machine) coverage in Mozambique hit record lows as digital mobile wallets replace bank services and POS (point-of-sale) terminals. Coverage dropped to 7.1 machines for every 100,000 adults in 2025. The Bank of Mozambique’s (BM) report on financial inclusion indicators shows that the country had 11 ATMs per 100,000 adults in 2019.

Coverage has fallen since then. Coverage fell to nine machines per 100,000 adults in 2022 and reached 8.2 by the end of 2023. In contrast, for every 314 bank agents (agents authorised to handle payments, withdrawals and deposits) across the country, there were 446,604 non-bank digital wallet agents operating in December, providing services including payments and money transfers via mobile phone operators.

This figure has almost doubled in two years compared to the 224,704 recorded at the end of 2023, with 1,003 traditional bank agents at that time – three times the number in 2025. At the end of the second quarter of 2025, coverage stood at 7.1 ATMs, falling to seven in the following quarter and returning to 7.1 in December. The same trend, given the growth in payments and transfers via digital wallets on mobile phones, is evident in POS terminals, whose coverage stood at just over 229 per 100,000 adults in 2019, falling every year to 190 by the end of 2024, totalling 35,470 nationwide. Data from the central bank indicate that there are 15 commercial banks and 12 microbanks operating in Mozambique, in addition to credit unions and savings and credit organisations, amongst others.