Instant payment systems are rapidly expanding across Africa with new platforms being deployed in months rather than year, a new report has found. Published by Nairobi-based AfricaNenda Foundation, Africa’s Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (SIIPS) 2025 report notes that besides faster rollouts, the continent also recorded rising transaction volumes.
In a release on Wednesday, the Foundation said it supported seven payment initiatives last year and helped launch two national systems, challenging long-held assumptions about the time required to build such infrastructure.
“We have broken the myth that national payment systems must take three to four years to launch,” said AfricaNenda Chief Executive Officer Robert Ochola in the report. “The technology works, partnerships are effective, and the impact is already visible.”
One of the fastest national deployments on the continent took place in Liberia where AfricaNenda supported the rollout of a mobile money-based instant payment system in just 73 days. Initially used for government salary payments with servants receiving wages in under one minute, the system has since expanded to person-to-person transactions. Since the launch, the system has processed nearly one million transactions totalling more than USD 11 million, without downtime, the report said.
“Liberia’s experience shows that speed and quality are not mutually exclusive,” said Akinwale Goodluck, Deputy CEO of AfricaNenda. “When leadership and partnerships are aligned and execution is disciplined, transformation happens quickly.”
In Rwanda, AfricaNenda supported the modernization of the eKash platform leading to a boost in activity with the enhanced platform now processing approximately 1.5 million transactions per month – a 40 percent increase from 2024, and has expanded to include microfinance institutions and savings cooperatives.
With the breakthrough in national deployments, AfricaNenda says efforts are underway to enable cross-border payments. The organization says it is working in partnership with the African Union Commission on a regulatory framework to harmonize and support seamless cross-border instant payments.
Despite the progress, significant gaps remain. The report estimates that around 400 million Africans are still unbanked, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing policymakers and financial institutions.
Experts say instant payment systems could play a critical role in closing this gap by enabling faster government payments, supporting small businesses and expanding access to digital financial services—particularly in rural areas.
The rapid expansion of instant payments is likely to have implications for countries such as Cameroon, where mobile money services dominate the digital payments landscape.
While platforms operated by telecom companies have significantly expanded access to financial services, fully interoperable instant payment systems could further streamline transactions between banks, mobile money providers and other financial institutions.
