Real-time, interoperable systems are reshaping trade, remittances and liquidity across Africa. And the shift is rapid.
This is revealed in Standard Bank’s new white paper, Cash and Payments in Africa, which outlines six forces which the company says are redefining how money moves. These include regional corridors, frictionless experiences, instant rails, platform business models, regulatory change and smarter liquidity. The integration story starts with trade corridors and policy.
“Intra-Africa trade only makes up about 18% of the of the total amount of trade in Africa,” said David Robinson, head of payments and receivables for African regions at Standard Bank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), during a media roundtable at the launch of the whitepaper earlier this month.
The 18% value is comparably low when looking at the 70% in Europe and 52% in Asia.
“The African continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiatives, a free trade area across the continent which currently has all 54 countries as members, have a combined GDP of $3.4-trillion across the continent.
“Its aim is to promote regional trade by removing barriers to trade with a particular focus on value added trade. You’re talking about industrialisation, as opposed to primary trade. It also wants to build regional value chains of goods manufacturing supply.
“The numbers are quite impressive, but they reckon it’ll boost intra-Africa trade by about 52%. The overall aim is to grow our combined GDP to a significant size in the trillions by 2050.”
Regional payment schemes such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the East African Payments System (EAPS) and SADC-RTGS aim to make cross-border settlement faster and more cost-effective, building on the trade integration goals of AfCFTA. Remittances add further weight to the shift: sub-Saharan Africa received $55-billion in 2023, with Nigeria accounting for about $20-billion, supporting education, healthcare and small business formation.
Frictionless payments are the consumer-side reality of that integration. Cashless payment volumes in Africa are expected to grow by 78% by 2025, driven by smartphone adoption, falling data costs and changing behaviour.
Nthabiseng Mohale, head of interbank and domestic payments at Standard Bank CIB, said: “From a mobile money perspective, it’s not just about moving money between mobile money accounts: it’s about utilising that to transact on day-to-day activities. Most people that are sitting with mobile money accounts are now transacting with merchant payments as well, which is something that you wouldn’t have noted before.
“You would think that normally, somebody with mobile money would take the funds out as cash and transact that way. But now, with merchant services, we’ve seen over $100-billion in transactions where mobile money is being used directly with merchants. The majority of that adoption is happening in sub-Saharan Africa.”
With over 70% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population under 30, demand is tilting to instant, intuitive and seamless services. Biometric verification, contactless payments, QR and embedded finance are moving into the mainstream, while mobile wallets in sub-Saharan Africa are projected to exceed $314-billion in transaction value by 2025.
Instant payments are now the operational backbone. In 2024, mobile payments in sub-Saharan Africa surpassed 80-billion transactions worth $1.1-trillion.
Beyond person-to-person transfers, real-time rails are enabling payroll and supplier disbursements, government-to-citizen programmes, tax collection and digitised utility payments. The next leg is a pan-African, real-time interoperable network that links domestic schemes and reduces reliance on foreign currencies for settlement.
The market’s opportunity is matched by its complexity. Banks face intensifying competition from agile fintechs, alongside evolving requirements for cybersecurity, data privacy and financial integrity.
Those that embrace open-banking frameworks, digitised Know Your Customer (KYC) processes and more harmonised compliance models are better placed to scale safely across borders.
Platforms, ecosystems and partnerships are the strategic lever for scale. Super-app experiences and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) models are unbundling and then re-bundling financial services around everyday use cases. These include transport, retail, healthcare and education.
Global firms are increasing their presence, but local incumbents retain an advantage in trust, regulatory alignment and distribution.
The rise of players such as M-Pesa and Flutterwave illustrates how combining payments with daily-life ecosystems accelerates adoption.
Liquidity is the macro constraint that makes operational efficiency non-negotiable. Consumer spending has grown 3.9% annually since 2010 and is expected to reach $2.1-trillion in 2025, yet much demand is met through imports. This is pressuring foreign-currency reserves and tightening domestic liquidity.
In response, corporates are adopting real-time liquidity tools, cash-concentration structures and modern working-capital programmes to shorten cash-conversion cycles, hedge currency exposure and keep credit lines flexible amid higher rates.
Underpinning all six themes is a common set of priorities: interoperability to reduce fragmentation; robust identity to expand inclusion; shared security standards to contain fraud; and public-private collaboration to speed rollout.
Standard bank says as the continent continues to digitise and integrate, the payments sector will remain at the heart of Africa’s growth story – instant, intelligent, and intrinsically African.
* Read the Standard Bank ‘Payments in Africa’ report here.
* View the Standard Bank ‘Payments in Africa’ infographic here.
*Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and deputy editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky at @jas2bann.