Mobile Money in Angola: Market Overview
Context and Relevance
The digital payments and financial inclusion ecosystem in Brazil and Angola is undergoing rapid transformation. In Brazil, Pix processes nearly 8 billion transactions per month and moved US$6.7 trillion in 2025 — making it the world's most successful instant payment system. But 34 million Brazilian adults still lack a bank account. In Angola, Multicaixa Express reached 1.9 million users, but 10.3 million adults remain excluded from the financial system. Mobile infrastructure already exists: 252 million phones in Brazil, 30.6 million in Angola. What's missing is the bridge between phone credit and real money.
Data in this analysis is based on authoritative sources including the Central Bank of Brazil, World Bank, GSMA, IMF and leading research reports. All data verified per our Editorial Policy.
Detailed Analysis
The airtime-as-money concept is not new — it was the fundamental principle behind M-Pesa's revolution of African payments in 2007. But in Brazil and Angola, the opportunity is different and potentially larger. Brazil has more sophisticated top-up infrastructure with hundreds of thousands of points of sale. Angola has Unitel with 50,000+ agents. The convergence of airtime with financial services can unlock value for tens of millions of people.
Key indicators include: 34 million unbanked adults in Brazil, 10.3 million in Angola, remittance costs of 5-10% on major corridors, and a mobile top-up market of R$40+ billion/year in Brazil. McKinsey Global Institute projects digital finance can add $3.7 trillion to emerging market GDP by 2030. The World Economic Forum identifies financial inclusion as a fundamental pillar of the UN SDGs.
Key Statistics
| Metric | Brazil | Angola |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 215M | 37.9M |
| Unbanked | 34M | 10.3M |
| Active phones | 252M | 30.6M |
| Pix/Mobile Money users | 150M+ | 1.9M MCX |
| Remittances received/year | $4.6B | $847M |
Implications for the Future
The future of payments in emerging markets will be defined by three factors: progressive regulation (BCB with Pix Automático and Open Finance, BNA with mobile money licenses), agent infrastructure (top-up points and banking correspondents as financial infrastructure), and product innovation (airtime-as-money, alternative credit scoring, digital remittances). Unitel Money operates at the intersection of all three, using existing infrastructure to serve people the banking system doesn't reach.