A report by the AfricaNenda Foundation has stated that the growth of instant payment services in Africa is increasing, enabling inclusion of more people in the continent into the financial system.
The foundation in its 2025 Annual Report, said the year was a breakthrough for Africa’s Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (IIPS) with record-speed national launches, bold continental policy action, and growing transaction volumes.
It said this demonstrates that interoperable, real-time payments are becoming a reality across Africa.
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“In 2025, AfricaNenda supported seven IIPS implementation and improvement initiatives and helped bring two national systems live – proving that interoperable, real-time payment infrastructure can be deployed in months, not years. These achievements reinforce a core message of the report: inclusive instant payments can be delivered faster and more cost-effectively than previously assumed when strong central bank leadership and coordinated partnerships are in place.”
“We have broken the myth that national payment systems must take three to four years to launch,” said Dr Robert Ochola, CEO of AfricaNenda Foundation.
“In 2025, we moved decisively from preparation to execution. The technology works. The partnerships work. Local ownership is strong. And most importantly, the impact is real,” he added.
He said AfricaNenda supported the rollout of Liberia’s mobile money-based instant payment system in just 73 days, one of the fastest national deployments on the continent.
“The system began with government-to-person salary payments, enabling public servants to receive wages in under a minute, and has since expanded to person-to-person transactions. Since launch, the platform has processed nearly one million transactions totalling more than $11 million, with zero downtime.
“Liberia’s experience shows that speed and quality are not mutually exclusive,” said Akinwale Goodluck, Deputy CEO of AfricaNenda.
He added that AfricaNenda supported the modernization of eKash in Rwanda, scaling an open and inclusive model in the country – in collaboration with RSwitch, Rwanda’s National E-payment switch.
“The upgraded system transitioned to an open-source architecture designed for scalability and long-term independence. The enhanced platform now processes approximately 1.5 million transactions per month – a 40 percent increase compared to 2024 – and includes microfinance institutions and savings cooperatives to extend access to underserved communities.”
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