Africa’s Digital Payment Revolution: Why Liberia Must Move Faster on Inclusive Instant Payment Systems | Business

As Africa accelerates efforts to build a more connected digital economy, Liberia and other African countries are being urged to prioritize inclusive instant payment systems capable of linking banks, mobile money operators, fintech companies, and financial institutions into a single interoperable ecosystem.

The call was made by Sabine F. Mensah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the AfricaNenda Foundation, during a two-day media training on Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (IIPS), Gender, and Regulatory Harmonization held at the Sofitel Hotel in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The training brought together journalists from 12 countries across Africa, including Liberia, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya, to deepen media understanding of digital financial inclusion, payment infrastructure, gender access, and regulatory reforms shaping Africa’s financial technology landscape.

Presenting AfricaNenda’s latest work on policy harmonization, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Sabine Mensah argued that Africa possesses much of the technology needed to support seamless digital payments. However, fragmented legal frameworks, inconsistent regulations and differing supervisory approaches continue to prevent consumers, businesses and financial institutions from fully benefiting from an integrated African payments ecosystem.

“Retail digital cross-border payments are essential for Africa’s economic future because they unlock opportunities for financial inclusion, economic integration and sustainable growth across the continent,” Mensah told journalists at the training..

Her presentation highlighted a critical reality confronting African economies: despite decades of regional integration initiatives, sending money across African borders remains among the most expensive and complicated financial transactions in the world.

According to AfricaNenda, the average cost of sending $200 within Sub-Saharan Africa remains 7.9 percent, making the region the most expensive globally for cross-border money transfers and significantly above the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing remittance costs to 3 percent.

Mensah said Africa’s current digital payment environment remains fragmented, with many countries relying heavily on closed-loop mobile money platforms that limit transactions between different providers.

She explained that while services operated by companies such as Orange, MTN, and Wave have expanded access to digital finance, they often operate within separate private networks, requiring users to maintain multiple accounts to transact across different platforms.

Using an example of elderly and low-income users, Mensah said the current system can create barriers for people who are already financially excluded.

“If you imagine my grandmother, who doesn’t already have a lot of money, you have to tell her that she has to create an account with Wave, she has to create an account with Orange, she has to create an account with MTN, to be able to make transactions with everyone in the family, because we all have different networks. It poses a problem,” she said.

According to Mensah, the solution lies in developing national and regional payment infrastructure that allows all licensed financial service providers to connect through a single system.

She said AfricaNenda’s focus is not on individual payment services but on building open payment systems that enable interoperability among banks, mobile money operators, fintech companies, microfinance institutions, and other financial actors.

“Mobile money services and instant payment services are services, but they are not a system. At the level of AfricaNenda, our goal is to work at the system level — national infrastructure in a country or regional infrastructure where there is a regional system,” Mensah explained.

She said inclusive instant payment systems would allow customers to use one account to transact with multiple providers without opening separate accounts or paying unnecessary additional fees.

For Liberia, where financial inclusion remains a major development challenge, the expansion of inclusive instant payment systems could transform how citizens access financial services, conduct business, and participate in the formal economy.

Liberia’s financial ecosystem has seen growing adoption of mobile money services through operators such as Lonestar Cell MTN Mobile Money and Orange Money, alongside traditional banking services. However, limited interoperability between financial platforms continues to create barriers for consumers and businesses.

An inclusive instant payment system could allow Liberians to transfer money seamlessly between banks, mobile wallets, fintech platforms, and government payment systems.

However, under the Inclusive Instant Payments System (IIPS), also known as Pay Na-Na, governing interoperable Person-to-Person (P2P) mobile money transfers between Lonestar Cell MTN Mobile Money Inc. and Orange Money Liberia.

The approved fee regime follows the official launch of the Inclusive Instant Payments System on December 16, 2025, in Monrovia, marking a major milestone in Liberia’s digital financial services landscape.

According to the CBL, the interoperable fee structure establishes a single, unified transaction charge applicable to all interoperable P2P transfers processed through the IIPS platform. The Bank said the measure aligns with its statutory mandate to promote affordability, transparency, interoperability, and financial inclusion, while ensuring the continuous availability of the system on a 24-hour basis.

Under the approved framework, interoperable P2P transfers with a transaction value ranging from US$1.00 up to US$2,000.00, or the Liberian Dollar equivalent, shall attract a fee of not more than one percent (1.0 percent) of the transaction value.

For interoperable P2P transfers exceeding US$2,000.00, or the Liberian Dollar equivalent, a flat fee not exceeding US$25.00, or its LRD equivalent, shall apply per transaction.

Mensah emphasized that true financial inclusion goes beyond allowing people to deposit and withdraw money.

“If you have a digital wallet and all you can do is put money in and out, cash in and cash out, you haven’t really solved the problem of the client’s inclusivity,” she said.

She explained that digital financial systems should enable users to access broader economic opportunities, including credit, insurance, savings products, and other financial services.

“Financial inclusion also allows the population to have access to additional resources. Through the fact that you put your money in an account, you secure your deposit, you make transactions, and you also allow access to other resources, including credit, other financial services, insurance and others,” Mensah added.

For Liberia’s small businesses, farmers, informal traders, and rural populations, experts say interoperable payment systems could reduce dependence on cash, improve transaction security, and create new pathways for accessing financial services.

AfricaNenda’s research shows that progress toward instant payment systems is accelerating across the continent.

According to Mensah, AfricaNenda mapped 33 instant payment systems across 25 African countries in 2025, including national and regional platforms.

She said five new systems became operational in 2025 alone, representing the highest annual growth since AfricaNenda began tracking the ecosystem in 2022.

The new systems were launched in Eswatini, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Algeria.

However, Mensah noted that significant challenges remain, particularly around regulatory fragmentation, cross-border payment barriers, transaction costs, and differences in financial regulations.

She said Africa’s ambition to increase intra-African trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will require easier and cheaper payment solutions.

“If we truly want to realize the opportunities offered by the African Continental Free Trade Area and the ambition of increasing intra-Africa trade, we need to find a seamless solution for cross-border payments in Africa,” she said.

One of the major obstacles facing Africa’s digital economy is the high cost of sending money across borders.

Mensah cited World Bank estimates showing that sending US$200 to Africa costs approximately 7.9 percent of the amount transferred, far above the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing remittance costs to three percent.

She argued that regulatory differences between countries are making cross-border payments unnecessarily difficult and expensive.

According to Mensah, fintech companies seeking to operate across Africa often face multiple licensing requirements in different countries, creating delays and uncertainty.

“Imagine if I am a fintech that does cross-border payment services and I decide that I want to focus on 10 countries in Africa. Imagine that this fintech will have to apply for 10 licenses in each of the countries,” she said.

She called for greater regulatory harmonization and mechanisms such as fintech licensing passporting, which would allow approved financial service providers to expand across multiple countries more easily.

Mensah said central banks must play a leading role in creating regulatory environments that balance financial innovation, consumer protection, and financial inclusion.

She explained that challenges such as different Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, data localization rules, foreign exchange restrictions, and payment messaging standards continue to slow down cross-border digital payments.

According to her, technology is no longer the major obstacle.

“Technology is already finding the solution. Instant payments happen. The issue is not technology. It’s regulatory and the lack of harmonization,” Mensah said.

AfricaNenda has been working with continental institutions, including the African Union, the Association of African Central Banks, regional payment organizations, the World Bank, and other stakeholders to advance discussions on regulatory coordination.

Mensah said the foundation is conducting studies on the feasibility of a Pan-African regulatory framework for cross-border payment services and hopes the findings will support future reforms.

Beyond technology and regulation, Mensah stressed that inclusive payment systems must also address gender inequalities in access to financial services.

She said women, rural communities, and vulnerable groups must be at the center of digital finance strategies to ensure that technology reduces rather than deepens existing inequalities.

For Liberia, where many women operate in informal markets and small businesses, improved digital payment access could create opportunities for safer transactions, business growth, and access to financial products.

As Africa moves toward a more integrated digital economy, Mensah said countries must focus on building payment systems that are affordable, accessible, secure, and open to all.

She emphasized that inclusive instant payment systems represent more than financial technology—they are tools for economic participation, trade expansion, and social empowerment.

For Liberia, the emerging continental payment revolution presents both an opportunity and a challenge: accelerate reforms, strengthen digital infrastructure, and embrace interoperability, or risk being left behind as Africa builds a connected financial future.