Digital Payments Revolution: Interoperability Opens New Economic Doors for African Women and Small Businesses in Liberia | Business

Madam Saybah Dunyan, a cross-border trader in Liberia, spent years knowing that carrying money on a trading trip could be just as dangerous as transporting the goods she travelled to purchase. Bandits had attacked vehicles she travelled in, she recalled, searching traders and taking their cash. Today, digital payments are changing that experience.

“We deposit our money in our buyer’s account, and we go to receive the goods. We just send the money and the goods come. No more looking for US dollars,” said Dunyan, President of the Women Cross-Border Traders Association, Montserrado Chapter. “Our women pay first and go without a bunch of money with them.”

Her experience offers a glimpse into a broader financial transformation unfolding across Africa, including Liberia, where governments, central banks, fintech companies and development partners are working to build payment systems that can move money more quickly, securely and efficiently.

At the heart of this transformation is digital payment interoperability – the ability of banks, mobile money operators and other financial service providers to connect their systems so that customers can transfer money seamlessly across platforms and, increasingly, across borders.

Women entrepreneurs, small businesses and informal traders who have traditionally faced barriers to conventional banking could benefit significantly from this transformation. Interoperable payment systems can make it easier to receive payments, pay suppliers, build transaction histories and participate in markets beyond their immediate communities.

The development is particularly important as Africa pursues deeper economic integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Efficient, secure and affordable digital payments are increasingly regarded as essential infrastructure for making cross-border commerce work at scale.

Making Digital Payments more Accessible

Despite the rapid growth of mobile money and other digital financial services, millions of Africans remain underserved by formal financial institutions.

Limited access to bank branches, high transaction costs, fragmented payment networks, unreliable connectivity and differences in national regulations can make even simple transactions difficult. 

Women-owned businesses and informal traders are often particularly exposed to these challenges. Many operate largely in cash economies; making transactions more vulnerable to theft while limiting the financial records that can help entrepreneurs demonstrate their creditworthiness or access formal financing.

Interoperability offers a potential way around some of these barriers by allowing money to move between different financial platforms without requiring customers to remain tied to a single provider. Dunyan said that for women engaged in cross-border trade, the practical benefits are already becoming evident.

“To be realistic, when it comes to the process that central banks are putting in place for women marketers, especially women across the border points, it’s beneficial for us,” she said, describing how digital transfers can allow traders to pay suppliers before travelling and reducing the amount of physical cash they need to carry.

“Certain times when we travel, bandits have attacked our cars. They took our money. They searched us,” she said. Digital transactions, she added, have reduced that risk. She recalled sending money from Liberia to Guinea. “I just sent my money, filled up my account, and when I entered my cross-border women’s place, I received my money in their currency.”

The process, she explained, can involve presenting a transaction code at a bank or payment point to receive the funds. But Dunyan cautioned that easier payments are only one part of the solution. For women traders to expand their businesses, she said, they also need affordable credit, business support and empowerment programs.

“We really need empowerment. Women empowerment.”

Fintech and Mobile Money Expand the Reach

The expansion of digital payments is also being driven by fintech companies, mobile money operators and payment service providers that are extending financial services beyond traditional bank branches.

Nimely Sayeh, President of the National Association of Foreign Exchange Bureau of Liberia (NAFEBOL), said the organization is helping foreign exchange operators adapt to the changing financial environment while promoting public awareness of digital payments.

 

 

“NAFEBOL is posing as a key bridge between foreign exchange bureaus in Liberia and the emerging digital payment ecosystem. What we do is promote and educate,” Sayeh said. He sees mobile money as particularly important in a country where access to physical banking facilities remains limited.

 

“Most parts of our country, there’s no real bank, physical bank, where you can go and deposit and withdraw. So mobile money is easy to access,” he said. Sayeh believes wider use of digital payments could also reduce the risks associated with cash, including robbery and other forms of criminal activity.

 

“Digital payment system reduces pressure on the currency. It reduces risk on the market. It reduces criminal activities. It reduces armed robbery.”

 

Interoperability is central to that vision because it allows customers to move money between different types of financial accounts. Instead of travelling to a bank branch, Sayeh said, customers can transfer funds digitally from wherever they are.

 

“You can stay in your room, in your bed, in your comfortable bed, and take money from your account easily. No need to go to the bank.”

 

This can eliminate the need by traders to physically transport large amounts of money or send cash through another person. “What it does, it reduces the risk of picking money, putting it in your pocket, or sending money by somebody.”

 

Sayeh also described using digital payments for transactions beyond Liberia, including sending money to purchase goods in Nigeria. “The last time I tried to buy a DSTV in Nigeria, I sent the money from here straight to the person’s account in Nigeria.”

 

But technology alone will not guarantee adoption, he said. Public education and digital financial literacy must grow alongside the infrastructure. “My final word is, we need to do more to carry on more awareness.”

 

CBL Building Digital Payment Infrastructure

 

“The transformation also depends on the infrastructure and regulatory frameworks being developed by central banks and policymakers,” Sabine Mensah, Deputy CEO of AfricaNenda.

 

However, AfricaNenda is working with the African Association of Central Banks (AACB) under the auspices of the African Union to develop the framework for what a continent-wide seamless inclusive cross-border payment system for Africa should look like. 

 

They have already engaged with various industry stakeholders across the continent, including the private sector, and picked their thoughts and expectations on what regulatory harmonization for Africa should look like. They have also done a feasibility study to establish winning approaches to the implementation of the policy harmonization framework for cross-border payments. The policy harmonization framework from AfricaNenda’s work over a two-year period was tabled at the African Union Congress Special Technical Committee (AUC STC) meetings in 2024 and 2025 for public sector and member state endorsement.

 

It can be recalled that on November 28, 2025, the AACB Assembly of Governors, instructed its own Task Force on Payment Systems Integration to lead the regulatory harmonization process, with AfricaNenda Foundation in a supporting role, explicitly ensuring the initiative is led from within the central banking community. This clearly shows that central banks on the continent have now agreed to take practical steps towards regulatory harmonization in the interest of building an inclusive instant cross-border payment system on the continent.

 

In Liberia, the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) is undertaking reforms designed to modernize the country’s payment infrastructure and strengthen interoperability among banks, mobile network operators and other financial institutions.

 

James B. Wilfred, Deputy Governor for Operations at the CBL, said the Bank remains a strategic partner in modernizing revenue collection and developing a secure and inclusive national payment ecosystem.

 

The CBL has invested in critical financial infrastructure, including a Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), an Automated Clearing House (ACH) and an instant, interoperable payment system. Wilfred said these initiatives are changing how individuals, businesses and government institutions conduct financial transactions.

 

“These initiatives are transforming the way individuals and businesses and government institutions conduct financial transactions by enabling faster, safer, and more efficient payment ecosystems across banks and mobile network operators.”

 

The CBL is also working to establish the Liberia Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems, including systems for routing, clearing, processing and settling electronic transactions. The Bank has secured funding from the Gates Foundation to leverage the Mojaloop platform in implementing the National Electronic Payment Switch (NEPS), an initiative expected to deepen interoperability across Liberia’s financial sector.

 

According to Wilfred, the initiative will “further deepen interoperability across the financial sector and accelerate Liberia’s digital platform agenda.” The planned infrastructure is intended to make interbank transfers faster, more secure and less costly while reducing reliance on manual processes. The CBL’s broader strategy also places digital payment modernization at the center of efforts to expand mobile banking, online payments and point-of-sale transactions.

 

A modern data center is being developed to support critical payment infrastructure and improve the resilience of the national financial system. According to Wilfred, the CBL-owned facility will enhance “the security, resilience, reliability, and business continuity of the national payment infrastructure.”

 

The benefits of interoperable payments extend beyond individual consumers and businesses. Wilfred said digital payment systems could improve tax collection and domestic revenue mobilization by giving taxpayers convenient payment channels through banks, mobile money platforms and other electronic systems.

 

This reduces tax transaction costs, minimizes delay, improves reconciliation processes, and lessens the dependence on a cash-based payment system. Digital transactions also create records that can improve transparency and accountability.

 

“They reduce opportunities for leakages, errors, and fraud, while strengthening public confidence in the revenue administration system,” Wilfred said.

 

For a country seeking to expand its digital economy, those records can have wider significance. A more traceable payment environment can help governments, businesses and financial institutions better understand economic activity and potentially create pathways for underserved entrepreneurs to enter the formal financial system.

 

NEPS and the Next Stage of Interoperability

 

Beyond the interbank payment infrastructure, the CBL is continuing the deployment of the National Electronic Payment Switch (NEPS), which is expected to become a central component of Liberia’s digital financial ecosystem.

 

The Bank’s 2025–2029 Strategic Plan identifies NEPS as a platform for connecting commercial banks, microfinance institutions, mobile money operators and other financial service providers.

 

The goal is straightforward but potentially transformative: enable money to move electronically across different financial platforms without forcing customers to navigate separate systems.

 

A market trader could receive money from a customer using a different provider. A small business might pay a supplier electronically without visiting a bank. A cross-border trader could eventually conduct more transactions digitally, reducing the risks and costs associated with transporting cash.

 

Challenges and the Road Ahead

 

Small and medium-sized enterprises are vital to African economies, yet many continue to face limited access to finance, expensive transactions and difficulties reaching regional markets.

 

Interoperable payment systems can help remove some of those barriers. They can make supplier payments easier, create verifiable transaction histories, reduce dependence on cash and enable businesses to serve customers beyond their traditional geographic boundaries.

 

But interoperability is not a magic solution. Liberia and other African economies still face challenges including unreliable internet connectivity, limited digital infrastructure, cybersecurity risks, low digital literacy and regulatory differences between countries.

 

There is also a risk that the shift toward digital finance could exclude the very people it is intended to help if rural communities, women and low-income households lack affordable access to devices, connectivity, digital accounts and financial education. That is why Dunyan’s call for women’s empowerment is as important as the technology itself.

 

Digital infrastructure can open the door, but entrepreneurs still need the resources and knowledge to walk through it. Sayeh similarly believes Liberia must accelerate the digitalization of business activity. “The first thing we are encouraging the state as well, which is the government, is to make sure that every business in this country is digitalized.”

 

The significance of that transition is ultimately practical for women like Dunyan. It is about travelling with less cash, reducing exposure to theft, paying suppliers more efficiently and reaching markets that once seemed financially out of reach.

 

As Liberia builds the infrastructure to connect banks, mobile money operators and other payment providers, interoperability could become more than a technical reform. It could become an economic bridge that connects informal traders to formal finance, small businesses to larger markets and African economies to one another.

 

The real measure of the digital payments revolution, however, will not be the systems built behind the scenes. It will be whether those systems make everyday commerce safer, cheaper and more accessible for the women and small businesses that keep Africa’s economies moving.

 

Edited: By Jude Fuhnwi, Media Lead, AfricaNenda Foundation