Maputo, Aug. 25, 2025 (Lusa) - Mozambique is revising the Personal Income Tax (IRPS) code to tax the commissions of agents and the three Electronic Currency Institutions (IME), which provide financial services via mobile phone.
According to a budget execution report from the Ministry of Finance consulted by Lusa on Monday, the measure is part of the series of actions underway "to improve revenue collection levels for 2025", in which the "government is continuing with tax policy reforms aimed at increasing the level of revenue collection and implementing measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the tax administration".
First of all, it means "modernising the mechanisms for taxing the digital economy", with "special emphasis" on the so-called mobile wallets, with the "taxation of commissions" of agents and the M-Pesa, e-Mola and M-kesh EMIs.
He adds that the "Proposal to Amend the Personal Income Tax Code (IRPS) for the taxation of commissions obtained" by agents and EMIs is being "drawn up", but that taxation is also “underway”, to this end "taking advantage of the legal space that already exists".
In the first six months of the year, according to the document on budget implementation, 787 agents from the mobile portfolios have already been registered, assigned NUITs (tax identification numbers) and started their activities.
The three Mozambican mobile wallets made a profit of 2,370 million meticais (€31.9 million) in 2024, up 41.69% in one year, according to figures reported on 18 July by Lusa.
According to a financial stability report by the Bank of Mozambique, this performance contrasts with the record net profits of 1,670 million meticais (€22.5 million) for EMIs in 2023.
Commissions, which "by the nature of the EMIs are decisive for the formation of results," fell by 2.71%, from 5.61 billion meticais (€75.6 million) in December 2023 to 5.46 billion meticais (€73.6 million) last year, the central bank document said.
"In December 2024, the banking sector's activity continued to be marked by the development of new products, expansion of financial services and digital distribution channels, as well as growth in the activity of electronic money institutions," it added.
Mozambique currently has three Electronic Money Institutions, owned by the three mobile telecoms operators, which provide financial services via mobile phone, including money transfers between customers or payment for services.
This is a solution that makes it easier and more widespread for the population to access financial services, using only mobile phones and IME agents on the street.
The number of digital wallet agents in Mozambique soared again in the first quarter of 2025, to 351,921, according to official figures reported in June by Lusa.
According to the Bank of Mozambique's latest report on financial inclusion indicators, the coverage includes 1,817 agents and 110 IME accounts per 100,000 adults.
This coverage, which already reaches all 154 districts in the country, has been growing progressively, reaching the previous record at the end of 2024, of 1,686 EMI agents per 100,000 adults, while in 2019 it stood at just 350.
At the end of 2024, the number of digital wallet agents in Mozambique totalled 315,005, according to the central bank's record.
According to a previous statistical report by the Bank of Mozambique, the number of bank accounts in the country grew by 10% in 2024, from 5,687,975 at the end of 2023 to 6,221,640 in December last year, but did not keep pace with the increase in EMIs, which grew by 18.5% in the same period, to 19,870,700, almost three million new accounts in the space of a year.
PVJ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
