Rise of Agency Banking in Africa and Southeast Asia

The shop on the corner is no longer just a retail outlet. It is becoming a backbone of Agency Banking & Wallet Users.

In many African and Southeast Asian markets, that corner shop is becoming the customer’s nearest banking, payments, and financial services access point. As banks and wallet providers look to expand reach without expanding branch cost, agency banking is moving from a financial inclusion channel to a scalable distribution platform.

-Over the last 20 years, the mobiquity® Pay team at Comviva has watched this shift unfold across markets globally. This piece captures what the data tells us — and what it means for institutions ready to move beyond cash-in/cash-out.

The Key Takeaway

Agent networks are not disappearing as digital adoption grows. They are seeing a special place for themselves as a bridge between cash, digital wallets, merchants, lending, and everyday financial services. The question that banks are evaluating today is the speed at which they need to evolve it from a cash-in/cash-out channel into a full financial services growth engine.

Evolution from a workaround to strong distribution platform Agency Banking enables today

Agency banking was not invented to be transformative as a movement. It was a practical fix: bank branches are expensive & need commercial viability, and the communities that most need financial access rarely live near one. The model began in Brazil in the 1970s, spread to India through the RBI’s Business Correspondent framework in 2006, and reached Africa through Kenya’s 2010 Banking Act amendment. In every market, it worked with the same principal – a trusted local agent extends a bank’s reach faster and at lower cost than any branch could.

What has changed is the ceiling on what the agent can do today. The agent who originally started as a cash-in/cash-out window is now being asked to do more: onboard customers, offer wallets, facilitate credit, enable merchant payments. The institutions that have recognized this shift early are the ones building distribution platforms, and not just agent networks.

The opportunity in Africa and Southeast Asia is clear

The two regions where this shift matters most are also the two where Comviva has seen the fastest acceleration. The opportunity looks different in each — but the direction is the same.

AFRICA Deepening the mobile money ecosystem In Africa, the opportunity is to deepen mobile money ecosystems through agents, merchants, liquidity visibility, and assisted onboarding. Agent networks are the distribution layer that can carry savings, credit, insurance, and merchant services to customers who already trust the agent for their cash needs.

SOUTHEAST ASIA Bridging cash and digital at scale In Southeast Asia, where digital ecosystems are more mature, agency networks can support assisted onboarding, cash-to-digital conversion, merchant enablement, and partner-led financial services. The agent is the trust layer between a digital-first platform and the customer who still needs a human to make the first move.

A Few Numbers that Illustrate the Scale

≈ 2× Growth in mobile money agents across sub-Saharan Africa, 2019–2023 (IMF)

4.46M New customers Nigeria’s Access Bank added through agents in two years

5× Growth in average transaction volume per agent in Indonesia, 2017–2023

Sources: Onafriq / IMF (2025) · Mobifin “Agent of Change” 2024 · J-PAL / MicroSave Indonesia 2021 · FinDev Gateway (Jan 2026).

What these numbers reflect is not just scale – it is direction. Agents are not being replaced by apps. They are being asked to carry more products, serve more customer journeys, and act as the human interface for financial services that used to require a branch. The institutions building on that are gaining an unfair distribution advantage that is very hard to replicate quickly.

Why Banks Choose mobiquity® Pay

25 years of building the world’s most deployed mobile money and agency banking infrastructure.

24% #1 global mobile money market share — 2× nearest competitor (GSMA 2025)

$400Bn+ Annual transaction value processed through the platform

500Mn+ Wallet customers globally

70+ Deployments in 50+ countries

What this looks like in practice – Case study: mid-sized commercial bank — Sub-Saharan Africa

A commercial bank with more than 500,000 customers and only 28 physical branches had reached a clear ceiling. Rural and peri-urban communities were too costly to serve through brick and mortar. Existing branches were congested with routine transactions that had no business being there.

Working with Comviva, the bank deployed mobiquity® Pay as its agent banking platform — connecting authorised agents to core banking in real time, issuing KYC-compliant digital wallets at the point of agent contact, and digitising corporate salary disbursements on the same infrastructure.

THE IMPACT The bank expanded last-mile reach without adding new branches, reduced pressure on physical outlets, and created a scalable agent-driven transaction network. 2,000+ agents deployed   ·   60,000+ wallet customers onboarded   ·   ~MWK 1bn in daily agent collections

How mobiquity® Pay powers Agency Banking

mobiquity® Pay is the #1 mobile money and digital wallet platform globally (GSMA 2025), deployed across 70+ markets and processing $400Bn+ in transactions annually. For banks building or scaling an agency banking network, it offers two deployment paths and a full stack of capabilities that grow with the institution.

Two deployment models

MODEL 1 — Core Banking Integration For banks extending existing core banking infrastructure through agents. Customers open bank accounts in core banking. Agents hold Stored Value Accounts (SVAs) in mobiquity® Pay. Transactions process in real time — customer account and agent SVA are debited/credited simultaneously. Best for: Banks with large existing customer bases seeking to extend reach through agents.

MODEL 2 — Full Wallet Ecosystem For banks building a mobile-first agent network from the ground up. Customers and agents both hold wallets in mobiquity® Pay, linked to bank accounts. Customers can fund their wallet from their bank account. All transactions settle within the wallet layer. Best for: Greenfield deployments and markets where wallet adoption is already high.

Key capabilities for agency banking

• Agent onboarding & KYC

Multi-channel onboarding via OTP, bank credentials, or national ID verification. Regulatory profile management aligned to KYC levels. Compliant with regulations in 50+ countries including GDPR and PCI DSS.

• Distribution hierarchy & agent management

Configurable multi-tier agent hierarchies from master agent to sub-agent. Granular authorization profiles controlling what each tier can transact. Automated commission disbursement management.

• AI-based e-Float optimizer — solving the liquidity problem

Comviva’s AI-powered liquidity engine predicts float requirements by analysing transaction trends and seasonal patterns. It triggers proactive alerts for shortfalls and automates real-time reallocation across agent accounts. This directly addresses the agent network downtime caused by liquidity gaps.

• Pricing & commission engine

Rule-based pricing with 40+ configurable conditions — flat fees, slabbed pricing, telescopic charging, cashback, milestone-based commissions. Supports agent commission structures, customer incentives, and multi-currency tax management.

• Monitoring, reporting & conversational analytics

Real-time network monitoring and alerting. AI-powered conversational analytics lets business users query agent performance, transaction volumes, and liquidity status using plain-language prompts — no technical knowledge required.

• Open API ecosystem

400+ open APIs enabling integration with core banking, remittance hubs, national switches, billers, merchants, and third-party financial services partners. MACH-compliant — no vendor lock-in.

 

Technology Architecture

• Microservices Architecture NEWMACH-compliant, cloud-native design — no vendor lock-in, deploy and scale independently
• Dynamic Mobile App Framework NEWConfigurable agent and customer apps adaptable to any market, brand or regulatory requirement
• USSD Flow Studio NEWVisual flow builder for USSD journeys — reach feature phone users with zero app dependency
• Integration Abstraction Layer NEW400+ open APIs connecting core banking, switches, billers, merchants and third-party partners seamlessly

Services agents can offer customers

• Account Openinge – KYC assisted account opening at the agent touchpoint
• Cash Deposits and Withdrawals – Real-time cash-in / cash-out at every agent location
• Balance Inquiries & Mini Statements – Instant account status and transaction history
• KYC Upgrades – Customer verification and KYC level upgrades at the agent
• Money Transfers – P2P, domestic and cross-border remittance
• Utility Bill Payments – Electricity, water, telecom and government bill payments
• Ticketing – Event, transport and government service ticketing at agent points
• Standing Instructions – Automated recurring payments and scheduled transaction management
• Investments – Access to savings products, fixed deposits and investment schemes
• Loans – Microloans and credit product origination and repayment
• Insurance – Life, health and asset insurance enrollment and premium collection
• Remittance – International remittance receipt and domestic transfer services

The agency banking maturity roadmap

Across Comviva’s deployments, we see leading institutions treating agency banking not as an endpoint, but as the first step toward broader ecosystem leadership. Each phase unlocks the next — and mobiquity® Pay supports the full progression.

PHASE 1 — FOUNDATION Agent onboarding & cash services Cash-in/cash-out, e-KYC account opening, balance inquiry and transfers. Build reach and customer trust. mobiquity® Pay enables: Agent onboarding, KYC workflows, SVA management, distribution hierarchy, limits and thresholds.

 

PHASE 2 — EXPANSION Digital services & transaction depth Bill payments, P2P transfers, airtime, USSD and mobile banking, agent liquidity management. mobiquity® Pay enables: Pricing engine, bill management, USSD/mobile integration, AI e-Float optimizer, workflow management.

 

PHASE 3 — GROWTH Lending, insurance & merchant services Savings, microloans, insurance, cards, merchant QR payments. Deepen the relationship and grow revenue per customer. mobiquity® Pay enables: Order management, instrument management (cards/wallets), partner API integrations, commission engine.

 

PHASE 4 — ECOSYSTEM BUILDING Platform, partnerships & new revenue Open APIs, business banking, payroll disbursements, government payments, third-party integrations. mobiquity® Pay enables: 400+ open APIs, ESB integration gateway, bulk processing engine, reconciliation management.

 

PHASE 5 — LEADERSHIP Super app & ecosystem ownership Embedded finance, AI-driven credit scoring, marketplace. Own the customer relationship across financial services. mobiquity® Pay enables: Progression from agent onboarding, cash-in/cash-out, wallet services, bill payments, lending journeys, merchant services, partner integrations, liquidity visibility, reporting, and operational monitoring through one scalable, highly configurable digital financial services platform.

 

THE NORTH STAR Financial inclusion at scale. Sustainable growth for the bank. Stronger communities and economies.

Let’s explore where your institution sits on the agency banking maturity curve.