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Despite the rapid rise of mobile phones and fintech innovations across Africa, over 400 million people on the continent remain financially excluded, a contradiction that the AfricaNenda Foundation and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) say underscores the urgent need for inclusive, homegrown payment solutions.
That message was delivered strongly during a high-level Peer Learning Visit hosted recently in Lagos, where policymakers and financial system leaders from over 10 African countries converged to study Nigeria’s progress in instant payments and explore scalable solutions for their own regions.
Speaking at the event, Robert Ochola, CEO of AfricaNenda Foundation, called on governments and financial stakeholders to shift focus from elite-centric digital infrastructure to systems that serve Africa’s most vulnerable: women, youth, and informal workers.
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“The real question is: can we build inclusive, scalable systems that serve every citizen, not just the privileged few?” he posed, citing Nigeria’s NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform as a model of success. The system, he noted, processes nearly a billion transactions monthly and connects banks, fintechs, and switches through a 24/7, real-time, and highly secure platform.
Ochola stressed that inclusive design must begin at the margins. “We support (countries’) technical design. We build regulatory capacity. We convene communities of practice like this,” he said. “AfricaNenda is here not as a spectator, but as your partner.”
The gathering also served as the launchpad for a growing continental movement focused on interoperability and collaboration. Premier Oiwoh, managing director and CEO of NIBSS, urged African governments to abandon legacy frameworks and take ownership of their digital payment journeys.
“It’s time for Africa to cast off the remnants of colonial-era thinking and take bold ownership of its financial future by building payment solutions by Africans, for Africans,” he said, proposing the creation of an Africa Regulators Forum on Digital Payments to harmonize standards, share learnings, and develop regionally rooted platforms.
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Representing the Central Bank of Nigeria, Musa Jimoh, director of Payment System Policy at the CBN, speaking on behalf of Phillip Ikeazor, deputy governor, Financial System Stability at the CBN, added that the real challenge is not competition among financial institutions, but the enduring dominance of cash. He called for regulators to prioritise collaboration, saying, “Let us rise above jurisdictional silos and come together as Africans.”
Over the course of five days, delegates participated in policy discussions, technical site visits, and knowledge-sharing sessions centred on Nigeria’s experience with building an inclusive digital payment infrastructure.
As countries seek to replicate Nigeria’s achievements while tailoring them to their local contexts, the Peer Learning Visit underscored a shared goal: to accelerate inclusive instant payments across Africa, not as a dream, but as a deliverable.
