Mastercard just held its first “Africa Edge” summit in Nairobi, gathering a mix of banks, fintech companies, telcos, and regulators to hash out a plan for the continent’s digital payment infrastructure. The event focused on tackling the core challenges of building a connected economy, with all eyes on the $1.5 trillion value projected for Africa’s digital sector by 2030.
With internet penetration on the continent forecast to grow at 20 percent annually, the summit’s participants focused on three main problems: how to expand low-cost payment acceptance for small businesses, how to improve interoperability (making different payment systems actually talk to each other), and how to enhance security at scale.
But it wasn’t just a talking shop. Mastercard used the event to launch and demonstrate two new pieces of technology.
- Merchant Cloud: This is a new, unified backend platform for businesses. The idea is to bundle payment processing, AI tools, and security features into a single package to help merchants manage both their online and in-store (omnichannel) sales environments.
- Agent Pay: The company also ran a live demo of an “Agent Pay” transaction, which it said was the first of its kind in the EEMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region. Mastercard described this as a move toward “autonomous, secure and accessible” payment experiences, likely targeting the continent’s vast and critical network of mobile money and banking agents.
Mark Elliott, Mastercard’s division president for Africa, framed the event as part of a “long-term commitment” to collaborate with partners and “power that growth.”
The need for speed and security
A major theme throughout the day was the critical need for payment immediacy. Panelists argued that same-day settlement is essential for small businesses, allowing them to manage cash flow, reinvest faster, and reduce their need for short-term loans. South Africa’s real-time clearing system was repeatedly “cited as a model” that Mastercard wants to help replicate in other African markets.
Ling Hai, Mastercard’s president for the wider APEMEA region, echoed the call for faster payments and pushed for closer collaboration between the public and private sectors to ensure new financial tools are “simple, safe and accessible.”
The event also tackled the rising threat of sophisticated, AI-driven fraud. A spotlight session featuring the identity verification company Smile ID addressed the growing problem of deepfakes and “synthetic identities.” The two companies highlighted their partnership, which combines AI-driven liveness checks – a common part of modern digital onboarding – with other verification methods to combat fraud.
On the same theme, futurist John Sanei delivered a keynote on how “human adaptability and emotional intelligence” will become defining leadership skills in an era of rapid AI-driven change.
Connecting mobile money to the world
Mastercard’s regional executives were clear that the strategy isn’t about replacing Africa’s dominant mobile money ecosystems but connecting them.
Shehryar Ali, the company’s country manager for East Africa, pointed to the region’s long-held leadership in mobile payments. He said Mastercard is building on that foundation by “linking ecosystems like Airtel Money, MTN Momo, Mixx by Yas and M-PESA to global payment rails.”
Ali noted that with 91 percent of Kenyan SMEs reportedly already using digital payments, the region continues to set the pace for the continent’s massive digital opportunity.
The summit, which brought together senior representatives from across the payments industry, concluded with an awards ceremony and gala dinner to recognize its partners.
