In 2007, Safaricom launched M-Pesa in Kenya with a simple premise: allow people to send money using text messages. What happened next has become one of the most studied phenomena in development economics. M-Pesa did not just give people a new way to send money — it gave them access to savings, credit, insurance, and business tools that formal banking had never provided.

The scale is staggering

Africa now accounts for more than 70% of the world’s mobile money accounts and more than 80% of the value transacted globally. The technology has spread to Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Rwanda, and dozens of other markets.

The question in African finance is no longer how to extend the banking system. It is how to build on the mobile money infrastructure that already exists.

The next frontier

The frontier now is interoperability — the ability to send money across different platforms and across borders. The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System aims to address this. Progress has been slower than hoped but faster than many expected.