A report by AfricaNenda Foundation, an organization promoting digital payment and money transfer systems across Africa, shows that there are currently 36 Instant Payment Systems operating in 31 African countries.
According to the report, these systems processed more than 64.6 billion payment and money transfer transactions in 2024, with a total value exceeding $1.981 trillion.
This represents significant growth compared to 2020, when all available payment systems across Africa processed more than 19.7 billion transactions worth over $776 billion.
Instant Payment Systems have become an increasingly important tool for improving access to financial services across Africa. In the past, making payments, depositing money or withdrawing cash often required people to physically visit a bank or other financial institution.
The process could be time-consuming and inconvenient. However, as technology advanced, financial institutions introduced various digital platforms to make money transfers and payments easier.
These innovations led to the growth of Mobile Money, mobile phone applications and USSD services, allowing people to send and receive money without necessarily visiting a bank.
While these services reduced the need for frequent physical travel to financial institutions, they also created another challenge. Different banks and financial service providers developed their own separate payment platforms, making it difficult for customers to transfer money easily between different systems.
To address this challenge, banks, telecommunications companies and other financial institutions began developing interoperable systems that allow customers to transfer money from one bank to another and between bank accounts and mobile money platforms.
Sabine F. Mensah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AfricaNenda Foundation, said Africa has made encouraging progress in the development of technology-based payment systems.
“There is increasing momentum in digital payments. Between 2024 and 2025, five new instant payment systems were launched. This is the highest number of new systems launched in a single year since we began tracking payment systems in Africa,” she said.
However, Mensah noted that despite the progress, more than 400 million Africans still rely on traditional methods of storing and transferring money.
She said this is mainly because some African countries have not yet introduced modern instant payment systems. In other countries, such systems exist but are not yet fully interoperable.
“If we say that 18 out of the 36 systems are interoperable, it means that the other 18 have not yet reached that level, and that is where we want to go,” she said.
Rwanda Has Already Addressed the Challenge
On July 14, 2026, Rwanda launched a new fast and interoperable payment system known as eKash.
eKash is a new instant payment system shared by different financial institutions. It allows customers to send and receive money and make payments between licensed financial institutions.
The system is designed to make payment services more accessible, secure, affordable and available to everyone.
The platform has recorded rapid growth since its launch. By August 6, 2026, eKash had processed more than 10.5 million payment and money transfer transactions worth over Rwf960 billion.
The number of people using interoperable payment services between different financial institutions also increased by 166 percent.
Economist Teddy Kaberuka said the growing use of technology in financial transactions could help countries reduce the costs associated with printing and managing physical currency.
“Using banknotes and coins is expensive. Producing physical money requires significant resources. With digital payment systems, some of these costs can be reduced because fewer physical banknotes and coins need to be produced,” he said.
Kaberuka added that digital payments can also increase the flow of money within the economy.
“Technology-based payment systems make it possible to conduct many transactions quickly. This improves liquidity flow and can support economic activity because services do not stop and many transactions can be completed within a short period,” he said.
However, he emphasized that cybersecurity and public awareness must remain a priority.
The most important challenge, he said, is ensuring the security of people’s money as it moves through digital systems and educating the public on how to protect themselves from fraudsters.
The FinScope 2024 survey found that about 96 percent of Rwandans have access to financial services.
AfricaNenda Foundation is a network of experts dedicated to using technology to accelerate payments and money transfers across Africa. The organization also provides training to private-sector professionals and government officials to strengthen knowledge and capacity in the digital payments sector.
