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Once a premium service, instant payments, now worth nearly $2 trillion USD according to a new report, are a financial lifeline for everyday use throughout Africa. The surge is powered by lower transaction costs and rising smartphone use, enabling even low-income users to transact in real time.
Five years ago, instant payments in Africa were the preserve of a small elite population with fully fledged bank accounts linked to their phone numbers. The service enabled these people, already inside the formal financial system, to transact conveniently in select urban areas, such as supermarkets or hotels equipped with QR codes, credit card readers, or specialised mobile-integrated platforms.
“Today, one does not need to step into a banking hall or even hold a traditional bank account to access real-time payments. You only need a handset and mobile data, and money exchanges hands anywhere in seconds,” says Margaret Kanini, a shopkeeper in Nairobi.
To restock her shop, Kanini uses her smartphone to make calls to suppliers, place an order, and a boda boda rider delivers. She then settles all her pending bills instantly via mobile money using a paybill number linked to the supplier’s bank account.
“Even buyers in my shop increasingly prefer to pay using mobile money, to show how instant payments have grown in Kenya, especially among low-income users and those without bank accounts,” explained Kanini.
Instant payments have surged to the trillion-dollar level in value and to billions in volume. More than US$1.9 trillion in instant payment transactions occurred in Africa in 2024, according to the State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (SIIPS) Report.
“Across the continent, instant payments are being launched to deliver affordable, real-time transactions for everyone, from the largest enterprises to individual customers,” said Governor of the Central Bank of Eswatini, Dr Phil Mnisi, in the report’s foreword.
Over the report’s review period, total transaction value has more than doubled from US $775.7 billion in 2020 to US $1,980.6 billion in 2024, driven by lower transaction costs and a surge in technological innovations that enable fintechs to plug directly into national financial switches.
“These national-scale retail payment systems provide the shared infrastructure that ensures anyone in a country can pay anyone else, regardless of where (or even if) the respective parties have an account. IPS help expand access to low-cost digital payments and enable immediate access to the funds,” notes the report.
The report tracking national-scale retail payment systems between January and June 2025 shows that there are currently 36 live systems in 31 countries in Africa, five of which were launched within the last 12 months.
Eswatini is among Africa’s newest entrants, with the Fast Payment Module launched in December 2024, Switch Mobile in Algeria, LYPay in Libya, Salon Pement Switch in Sierra Leone, and the Somalia Instant Payment System in Somalia gaining domestic instant payment system functionality in the past year. AfricaNenda described the list as the largest annual addition since it began tracking the developments in 2022.
Four of these new systems are cross-domain platforms enabling interoperability between banks and non-bank providers, which is crucial for inclusivity. This brings the number of African countries with domestic instant payment functionality to 25,” said AfricaNenda Foundation Chief Executive Officer, Dr Robert Ochola, in the report.
Nigeria’s Instant Payment (NIP), NIBSS, the report said, has become the first African Inclusive Instant Payment System to achieve mature inclusivity, as more are becoming entrenched across the continent. By the close of 2024, Africa Nenda reported that 42%of Africans aged 15 and older lacked a bank account or mobile wallet, and 49% had not made or received a digital payment, a gap that Instant payments are seen closing in the years to come.
Central banks in Africa have been challenged to expand collaborations and support each other to build and scale instant payment systems and align them into a cross-border ecosystem.
Already, some regional initiatives are rolling out across the continent. In November, Rwanda and Tanzania began bilateral discussions on technical modalities to connect their national retail payment system switches, enabling instant, low-cost cross-border money transfers for citizens and businesses across the region. Tanzania’s Instant Payment System (TIPS) will be linked to Rwanda’s National Payment Switch (RSWITCH) to enable an East African regional instant payment system.
“This preparatory work marks a pivotal milestone in our regional payment system integration agenda, moving us closer to a single regional instant payment ecosystem that will facilitate secure, affordable, and real-time transactions across borders,” said Eng: Daniel Murenzi, EAC Principal Information Technology Officer in Kigali, Rwanda.
At the end of October, Pan-African banking group Ecobank partnered with global payment infrastructure firm Thunes to enable instant cross-border payments for millions of individuals and businesses across its 32-country operational footprint, starting with Togo.
“By combining our robust banking infrastructure with Thunes’ fintech innovation and trusted Direct Global Network, we’re expanding real-time financial access for millions and driving the growth of Africa’s digital economy,” said Ecobank Group Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Awori.
Existing regional Instant Payment Systems include the Groupement Interbancaire Monétique de l’Afrique Centrale Payment System (GIMACPAY), the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Instant Payment System.
GIMACPAY currently serves Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, covering central Africa. PAPSS operates across Nigeria and 12 other West African states, and has also expanded into Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. The SADC Instant Payment System is live in Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Four other regional blocs, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), are at various stages of developing their own cross-border payment systems.
Credit: Conrad Onyango, Bird Story Agency
