The number of funds transfers through mobile payment channels in the fiscal year 2021/2022 increased by 58 percent from 196 million to 310 million transactions and the value increased by 41 from Rwf4,707 billion to Rwf6,616 billion; the National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) has reported.

Latest figures from NBR’s report for the year 2021/2022 released on 31st October, shows that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 8.9% in 2022 from 4.4% of the previous year registered in June 2021.

The report also indicates that Rwandan franc depreciated by 3.8% in June by the end of June 2022, compared to 5.3 percent depreciation recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.

On another note, the banking sub-sector’s aggregate net profits increased by Rwf18.5 billion to Rwf74.4 billion during the first half of 2022 from Rwf55.9 billion during the first half of 2021.

BNR indicates that transfers through mobile banking channels increased by 35 percent from 6 million to 8 million transactions and the value of transactions increased by 140 percent from Rwf917 billion to Rwf381 billion.

Meanwhile, funds transfers through internet banking increased by 42 per cent from 1,552,080 to 2,205,107 transactions and the value of transactions increased by 57 per cent from Rwf2,672 billion to Rwf4,200 billion.

The number of mobile banking subscribers increased by 18 per cent from 2,080,549 in June 2021 to 2,244,652 and Internet banking subscribers increased by 32 per cent from 106,312 to 140,662 in June 2022. Active mobile payment subscribers also increased by 9 percent from 5,079,232 in June 2021 to 5,528,109 in June 2022.

Among others; the number of card based Point-Of-Sales (POS) increased by 14 percent from 4,635 POS in June 2021 to 5,263 POS in June 2022 while the number of mobile POS increased to 49,975 in June 2022 from 45,627 in June 2021. On the other hand, Virtual POS (QR based POS) moderately increased from 4,280 in June 2021 to 4,295 in June 2022.

The number of agents providing banking services increased by 33 percent from 6,555 to 8,720 agents while mobile payment agents slightly increased by 2 percent, from 144,250 to 146,930 agents. The number of automated teller machines (ATMs) remained stable with only 1 percent of increase from 338 to 344 ATMs at end June 2022.

Overall performance
As per released report, the overall value of retail e-payment to GDP increased by 16.4 percent during the period to reach 111.9 percent.

The usage was dominated by mobile payment (transfer and acquiring services) and internet banking services, which account for 67.4 percent and 35 percent of the GDP respectively.

Transfers through mobile payment channels occupied the largest share of the total number of cashless transactions with 70 percent followed by transfers via mobile banking with 26 percent.

In terms of value, transfer through mobile payment represented 51 percent followed by internet banking with 32 percent of total value of transactions.

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