Cross-border payments platform PawaPay has processed more than three billion mobile money transactions across Africa, marking a significant milestone that reflects the continent’s rapidly expanding digital payments ecosystem and growing adoption of mobile money for business and commerce.
The United Kingdom-based fintech company reached its third billion transactions in less than nine months, achieving the milestone three months faster than it took to process its previous billion transactions. During the same period, daily payment volumes nearly doubled from approximately 2.4 million to five million transactions.
The growth highlights the accelerating shift toward digital financial services across Africa, where mobile money has become a critical tool for payments, commerce, and financial inclusion.
Simplifying Fragmented Payment Networks
Africa’s payments landscape has historically been characterised by fragmented mobile money systems operated by different telecommunications providers across multiple countries. Businesses seeking to operate regionally have often been required to integrate separately with numerous mobile network operators while navigating varying regulatory requirements and foreign exchange complexities.
PawaPay addresses this challenge through a unified application programming interface (API) that connects merchants to nearly 50 mobile money operators across 20 African markets. The platform provides access to more than 218 million mobile wallets, allowing businesses to accept and disburse payments through a single integration.
Merchant Payments Drive Growth
While mobile money initially gained popularity through peer-to-peer transfers and remittances, merchant transactions are increasingly driving adoption across the continent.
Businesses now use digital payment infrastructure to collect customer payments, manage supplier transactions, process salary disbursements, and support cross-border trade. According to the company, it has facilitated more than €10 billion in settled payments to date.
To support this scale, PawaPay has invested in treasury management capabilities that handle foreign exchange across multiple African currencies, maintain regulatory compliance in key markets, and streamline settlement processes.
The company has also incorporated stablecoins into parts of its treasury operations since 2022 in an effort to reduce settlement times and mitigate currency-related risks associated with cross-border transactions.
Supporting Expansion Across Africa
Company executives say the platform is designed to remove operational complexity for businesses expanding into multiple African markets.
Rather than requiring merchants to establish individual payment integrations, treasury systems, and settlement processes in each jurisdiction, PawaPay provides a consolidated infrastructure that enables companies to focus on growth while relying on a single payments platform.
The milestone comes as Africa continues to strengthen its position as the world’s leading mobile money market. Industry data indicates that merchant payments and digital commerce are growing rapidly alongside increased smartphone penetration, improved connectivity, and expanding financial inclusion initiatives.
As interoperability between banks, mobile network operators, and fintech providers improves, platforms such as PawaPay are expected to play an increasingly important role in facilitating seamless cross-border transactions and supporting Africa’s evolving digital economy.
