Africa’s next payments race is to automate how money moves

Africa’s mobile-money success has created a foundation for the next phase of payments innovation. The challenge is increasingly how to move money reliably across providers, markets and currencies while reducing the manual work businesses face when collecting, transferring and reconciling funds.

According to the GSMA’s April 2026 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, mobile-money services processed US$2.1 trillion globally in 2025. Merchant payments reached US$155 billion, up 42% annually, with East Africa accounting for three-quarters of that growth.

As digital transactions scale, the opportunity is shifting towards software that connects payment systems, automates routine processes and handles exceptions.

McKinsey’s 2026 Global Payments Report examines the broader movement towards payments that operate increasingly in the background, including the potential for software agents to initiate transactions and make routing decisions.

For African markets that expanded digital payments through mobile money without first building extensive card networks, the next challenge is making transactions work seamlessly across banks, mobile-money operators and international payment systems.

From Kenya’s M-Pesa, Ghana’s mobile-money ecosystem to MTN MoMo’s operations across multiple African markets have established digital channels for consumers, merchants and businesses.

Connecting those channels to other providers and automating the processes behind transactions could make it easier for businesses to collect payments, distribute funds and manage cash across markets.

Kenyan payments company Cellulant offers a practical example of how that shift is taking shape.

According to a June 2026 account of its partnership with African digital music service Mdundo, Cellulant’s Tingg Payouts platform enabled royalty payments across six markets through a single integration, with same-day settlement and reconciliation.

Cellulant reported that Mdundo’s transaction volume grew from US$100,000 to US$1 million per cycle over five years. The platform centralised payments to artists’ bank accounts and mobile-money wallets, reducing the administrative work involved in distributing royalties.

The example illustrates an important distinction. Automating the execution and reconciliation of payments does not necessarily mean software decides whether a payment should be made. A business can still authorise a payout while software handles the process of sending funds, recording transactions and matching payments to the relevant accounts.

That distinction matters as providers compete to manage more of the work surrounding a transaction.

“The competitive advantage in African payments is shifting from speed to what happens after the money has already left,” payments commentator Lesego Igwe said.

For businesses operating across multiple payment systems, that means knowing whether funds have reached their destination, recovering failed transactions and reconciling payments without manually checking each provider’s records. These functions can reduce administrative costs and make it easier to manage larger transaction volumes.

Nigeria’s National Payment Stack illustrates the parallel expansion of the infrastructure on which these services could operate. The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System reported in September that the platform had processed more than 100 million transactions.

Its chief executive, Premier Oiwoh, described the milestone as “a validation of our collective resolve to build a world-class payment system for Nigeria.”

The stack uses ISO 20022, an international standard for exchanging structured financial information, which can support more consistent processing and reconciliation across connected systems.

The transaction milestone demonstrates adoption and scale, rather than the extent to which the platform independently routes payments or recovers failed transactions. Those capabilities require separate evidence, but common payment infrastructure and structured transaction data can help providers develop more automated services.

Other companies are targeting the connections between payment providers directly.

East African payments platform Pesaswap advertises intelligent routing, automatic failover and centralised reconciliation. In principle, these functions allow software to select an available payment provider, switch routes when a provider fails and bring transaction records together across different systems.

Independent data on transaction volumes and performance would help establish how extensively these capabilities are being used.

On 6 October, African fintech Startbutton announced early access to Trot, a platform combining collections, treasury management, foreign exchange and payouts through a single application programming interface, or API.

According to Startbutton, its payment infrastructure covers 16 African markets and serves more than 700 business merchants from over 30 countries. Trot brings local-currency and stablecoin balances into one treasury environment, allowing businesses to manage funds, convert currencies and execute payouts through one platform.

The proposition is to give businesses a single point from which to manage financial operations that would otherwise require several providers and separate processes. However, combining these functions in one interface does not automatically mean that all treasury decisions or transactions are executed without human approval.

The distinction between connecting services and automating decisions is becoming more important as African businesses expand across borders. Payment orchestration can help companies manage different providers through one system, while treasury automation can reduce the manual work involved in tracking balances, converting currencies and initiating payouts.

Cross-border banking is expanding the underlying connections too. On 12 October, Ecobank announced a memorandum of understanding with China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, to expand renminbi payment and clearing connectivity between China and Africa.

Ecobank chief executive Jeremy Awori said the partnership would strengthen “the connectivity between China’s RMB payment ecosystem and Ecobank’s extensive African network”.

Operating in 34 African markets, Ecobank has a network that could support businesses trading between Africa and China. The agreement advances payment connectivity, but it does not in itself demonstrate automated transaction processing. Its relevance lies in creating additional links through which banks and businesses could develop more integrated payment services.

A further stage would involve software moving beyond executing instructions to initiating payments on behalf of consumers and businesses.

Visa is preparing for this possibility. In May 2026, the company launched its Agentic Ready programme across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, allowing financial institutions to test transactions initiated by artificial intelligence agents.

According to Visa, the programme enables issuers to examine how agents can initiate and complete transactions while maintaining security and consumer protections. Its regional scope does not establish that African institutions are already using agent-initiated payments in live commercial settings.

The potential applications include software paying approved invoices when due, selecting among authorised payment options or making purchases within customer-defined budgets. Such systems could eventually assess conditions and initiate transactions within rules set by a person or business, rather than simply execute a scheduled transfer.

The International Monetary Fund’s April 2026 analysis, How Agentic AI Will Reshape Payments, examines the potential shift towards transactions initiated and coordinated by software agents.

The model raises questions about how customers grant authority to software, who is responsible when a transaction goes wrong and how payment providers protect systems against fraud and cyberattacks.