UK-based fintech company PawaPay has officially processed over three billion mobile money transactions across Africa.
UK-based fintech company PawaPay has officially processed over three billion mobile money transactions across Africa. Highlighting the rapid acceleration of digital commerce on the continent, the startup secured its latest one billion transactions in less than nine months while successfully doubling its daily transaction volume to five million payments.
Founded in 2020, PawaPay provides mobile payment solutions tailored for businesses operating in Africa. By connecting large and small enterprises to nearly 50 mobile network operators across 20 African nations through a single API, the platform allows merchants to accept and disburse payments seamlessly without having to build individual, complex integrations for every single market. Since its launch, PawaPay has processed more than €10 billion ($11.63 billion) in total payments.
For much of its two-decade history, Africa’s mobile money economy which reached a valuation of $1.4 trillion in 2025 was heavily associated with personal remittances and basic cash exchanges. However, PawaPay’s milestone reflects a major structural shift: businesses are increasingly leveraging mobile money rails to collect merchant payments, disburse corporate funds, and scale their cross-border operations.
According to global telecom industry body GSMA, more than $2.1 trillion flowed through mobile money networks globally in 2025. Merchant payments emerged as the fastest-growing use case worldwide, surging by 42% year-on-year to hit $155 billion. The GSMA also reported a 59% increase in monthly active merchants offering mobile money as a checkout channel.
PawaPay’s Chief Operating Officer, Jamie Steell, noted that mobile money is experiencing a steady 20% year-on-year growth rate. He attributed this sustained momentum to a combination of favorable demographics and shifting market dynamics, including a highly connected young population, falling smartphone prices, more affordable internet access, and the widespread digitization of trade.
While transaction numbers continue to shatter records, mobile money still primarily functions as a processing tool rather than a long-term store of value. The majority of African users still choose to cash out their funds rather than keeping them inside their digital wallets.
According to Steell, the next major evolutionary phase for the sector will occur when users begin treating mobile money wallets as their primary financial hubs. Keeping funds within the ecosystem to handle investments, savings, and routine merchant payments will likely trigger exponential, self-sustaining growth over the next five years.
Currently, the strongest volume growth on PawaPay’s network is concentrated in Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, and Uganda. This closely mirrors broader industry data from the GSMA, which identified East Africa as the primary driver behind roughly three-quarters of global merchant payment growth.
Although PawaPay currently processes payments for a limited number of merchants in Nigeria, it does not yet operate as a full payment aggregator in the country. However, leadership confirmed that expanding its footprint within Nigeria is a high-priority goal.
Nigeria represents a massive digital payments market, with mobile money transaction volumes reaching ₦20.71 trillion ($13.49 billion) in the first quarter of 2025 alone, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).
Despite the size of the opportunity, entering Nigeria requires a different strategic approach compared to East or West Africa. Unlike countries like Kenya or Uganda, where telecom operator-led services (such as M-Pesa or MTN Mobile Money) dominate the landscape, Nigeria’s payment ecosystem is highly unique and overwhelmingly led by independent fintech wallet providers like OPay and PalmPay, alongside a deeply entrenched instant bank transfer infrastructure.
