FNBB muscles into mobile money race
Lewanika Timothy | Monday September 14, 2026 06:00
The move will allow customers receiving money through eWallet to transfer the funds directly into platforms such as Orange Money, Mascom’s MyZaka, and BTC’s Smega, breaking down the walls that have traditionally kept funds within individual payment ecosystems.
FNBB unveiled the plans alongside full-year results showing profit before tax rising by 12% to P2.12 billion for the year ended June 2026, from P1.9 billion previously. The bank’s performance came despite constrained liquidity, higher funding costs and weaker demand for credit, which contributed to a five percent fall in customer advances.
The bank’s executives announced during the results announcement in Gaborone this week that FNBB was stepping up its investments in digital financial services, including broadening the reach and functionality of eWallet.
Under the planned integration, the bank will connect its existing infrastructure to other mobile wallets, allowing money to move between the different ecosystems.
Acting Chief Financial Officer, Orapeleng Senwelo, disclosed to BusinessWeek that the bank had taken note of the transaction volumes flowing through both eWallet and the wider mobile money market and had decided that the opportunity was too good to pass up.
Senwelo said the expansion would allow FNBB to reach customers who sit outside the formal banking system, whilst strengthening eWallet’s relevance in a market increasingly favouring faster and more accessible payment options.
“We’ve got the volumes. We’ve seen the volumes on the eWallet, the current eWallet offering.” “For us, it’s helping us attract those that don’t want to have a bank account.” “It’s just a way of enhancing our current eWallet offering, because the wallet that we have can then integrate with other wallets,” he told BusinessWeek.
According to FNBB’s latest results published on the Botswana Stock Exchange, eWallet transaction volumes rose from 14.6 million in 2025 to 15.2 million transactions in 2026, representing growth of about four percent.
The bank separately reported that the value of transactions processed through CashPlus, its agency banking platform, increased from P7.8 billion to P9.3 billion whilst the number of CashPlus agents rose from 1,794 to 2,071 during the reporting period.
Senwelo described the proposed connection to other wallets as an evolution of eWallet rather than the introduction of a separate product.
“It’s the evolution of the current wallet that we have,” he said. “The value proposition is that if you’re not an FNB person, if I send you money and you want to send it to Orange Money, you are able to do that. “There’s that interoperability that allows clients to send their money to whatever wallet from our eWallet.”
Bank of Botswana figures indicate that mobile payment platforms processed 220.2 million transactions worth P47.6 billion in 2025. This was up from 181.7 million transactions valued at P37 billion in 2024, translating into annual growth of 21% in transaction volumes and nearly 29% in value.
Mobile money transactions were valued at P20.5 billion in the year to March 2022, before rising by 29% to P26.5 billion in the following year. By March 2024, their annual value had climbed another 26% to P33.5 billion.
The growth has been fuelled by the ability of mobile wallets to reach people without traditional bank accounts, together with their expansion beyond basic person-to-person transfers. Customers can now use mobile money to buy electricity and airtime, settle bills, receive salaries and remittances, pay merchants and transfer funds between wallets and bank accounts.
Mobile money also draws strength from its accessibility. Unlike conventional banking, which historically relied on branches, bank cards and formal accounts, wallets can be opened and operated through an ordinary mobile phone and supported by widespread agent networks.
The latest BOCRA figures show that Botswana had 1.24 million mobile money accounts as at March 2025, up 9.5 percent from 1.14 million a year earlier.
Orange Money remained the dominant operator with 75% of the market, followed by MyZaka at 13%, Smega at seven percent, and BotswanaPost at five percent.