…Daily transaction volume doubles to 5m
By Kingsley Samuel
A pan-African payments aggregator, PawaPay, has announced that it has processed three billion successful mobile money transactions across its platform, underscoring the growing adoption of digital payments and mobile money services across Africa.
The company disclosed that the third billion transactions were processed in less than nine months, three months faster than it took to process the previous billion, while daily transaction volumes almost doubled from about 2.4 million to five million during the same period.
According to the company, the milestone reflects increasing demand from businesses seeking reliable payment collection and disbursement services across multiple African markets.
The development comes as mobile money continues to gain momentum across the continent.
Data from the GSMA State of the Industry Report 2026 showed that mobile money transaction value in Africa grew by 26 per cent last year, while merchant payments globally increased by 50 percent to $155 billion.
PawaPay said its growth has outpaced broader market trends in several sectors it serves, including remittances, transportation, digital services and humanitarian payments.
The company noted that mobile money is increasingly becoming the preferred payment channel for a wide range of businesses, from optical retail chains and e-commerce platforms to education technology firms and retail merchants operating across African markets.
PawaPay currently connects businesses to nearly 50 mobile money operators across 20 African countries through a single Application Programming Interface, API, providing access to more than one billion mobile wallets.
The company also revealed that it has processed over €10 billion in payment value since inception.
Speaking on the milestone, Director of Product at PawaPay, Heiti Allak, said businesses expanding across Africa should be able to focus on growth rather than the complexities associated with payments infrastructure.
He said: “Businesses expanding across Africa should not have to build a payments company inside their own organisation. That is what happens when each new market adds operator relationships, settlement flows, support processes and treasury requirements.”
PawaPay takes that complexity away from the business, enabling them to focus on their customers and growth.
Three billion transactions is what mobile money looks like when it sits behind everyday economic activity, from transport and subscriptions to remittance and humanitarian support.
“The company explained that its platform enables merchants to manage operator connectivity, settlement, foreign exchange, reconciliation and regulatory requirements through a single integration.
It added that since 2022, it has incorporated stablecoins into its treasury operations to improve settlement efficiency and reduce currency-related uncertainties across different markets.
Over the past six years, PawaPay has supported businesses across various sectors, including remittance services, transportation, digital platforms and humanitarian organisations.
Among its customers are Deriv and GiveDirectly, both of which use the platform to manage payment operations across multiple African markets through a single integration.
Industry analysts say the rapid growth of mobile money transactions highlights the increasing role of digital financial services in driving financial inclusion, cross-border commerce and economic activity across Africa.
