Pioneering cross-border remittances through mobile wallets in The Gambia: the opportunity of cost reduction

IFAD partnered with Qmoney under the PRIME Africa initiative to expand access to The Gambia’s first ever mobile wallet for internatonal remittances among low-income rural remittance families.

Budget:

Financed: EUR 306,550
Co-Financed: EUR 93,550

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Duration: 2022 ~ 2024

Project Category Financial Inclusion
Remittances & Digitalisation

Target Groups:

The Gambia, mostly rural areas outside Greater Banjul and its corridors from Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Targeting remittance senders and receivers.

Programme

FFR Strategic Framework

PRIME Africa

Project Goals

To enhance the financial resilience and economic empowerment of remittance families through cost-effective, digitized remittance flows and financial inclusion innovations.

Implementing Partners

Qmoney Financial Services Ltd is a subsidiary of Qcell, the latest mobile network operator to enter the Gambia telecommunications market. In 2020 Qmoney became the first mobile money company in The Gambia to terminate international remittances into e-wallets.

Geographic Target

Gambia

Outcomes

As of December 2023, QMoney has successfully developed and launched a fully functional portal in collaboration with Ping Money, which is based in the United Kingdom and is currently expanding into the EU following a recent licensing approval. Moreover, Memorandums of Agreement (MoAs) have been formalized with key partners, including FRS Money Transfer, Easy Financial Services, NAFA Gambia and Supersonics.
Throughout 2023, QMoney has activated 12,000 mobile wallets to facilitate the termination of remittances directly into these wallets. Furthermore, 5,300 customers have received training in financial literacy to promote greater uptake of these services. To enhance accessibility, QMoney has onboarded a total of 108 agents, 68 of which operating in rural areas.
Despite certain delays in implementation, the project is expected to reach 17,200 senders and 17,200 receivers. Additionally, the agent network is anticipated to expand by 25%, and a total of 16,000 remittance receivers will have been trained in financial literacy, significantly contributing to the overall financial empowerment of the targeted communities.
Final expected beneficiaries: 68,600 remittance senders and receivers.

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