Mastercard has elevated its acceptance network in Africa by 45% in 2025, enhancing digital payments access and financial inclusion for millions, while driving innovation and collaborations to harness Africa’s $1.5-trillion digital market by 2030. Mastercard has grown its acceptance network across Africa by45% in 2025– a major milestone that brings millions more consumers and small businesses into the continent’s fast-expanding digital economy. This accelerated progress underscores the strong advancement of digital payments, technology and innovation in Africa – a transformation that traditionally would have taken several years to accomplish.
The surge comes in a year defined by new market entries, significant investment, product innovation and an expanded on-ground presence – efforts that reinforce Mastercard’s role in powering Africa’s projected$1.5-trillion digital payments market by 2030. Over the past two years Mastercard has accelerated its Africa expansion, opening new offices inGhana, Uganda and Mauritius, with further markets set for launch in 2026. The companyalso grew its employee base by almost 20% across the continent, strengthening local capabilities and enabling co-creation of solutions tailored to the needs of African communities and merchants.
Alongside its footprint expansion, Mastercardadvanced key digital infrastructure– including tokenisation upgrades, digital identity capabilities and virtual card enhancements – to bolster trust, safety and convenience across online and in-person payments. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – Africa’s economic backbone – are a top focus. With consumer spending expected to rise across major markets (Kenya 4%, Morocco 3.4%, Nigeria 6%, South Africa 1.9%), demand for digital tools has surged.
Read Full Article on Daily Maverick
[paywall]
Digital payment tools are also essential for SMEs to meet evolving business needs – enabling them to pay and get paid seamlessly, access credit, strengthen financial resilience and operate with enhanced safety and security in an increasingly digital economy. These tools include tap-on phone solutions, the Mastercard Payment Gateway System (MPGS) that enables e-commerce transactions, QR payment capabilities like QR pay by link and QR on-card solutions, point-of-sale solutions and Business Payment Control capabilities, which enable virtual card issuance. Mastercard is helping to advance Africa’s SME ecosystem through pan-African collaborations that enable seamless cross-border payments, credit solutions and marketplace digitisation.
Fuelled by these cross-sector collaborations that include governments, FMCGs and telcos, the company has launched15 new SME-focused programmesin the past 18 months. Mastercard is actively usingCommunity Passas part of its efforts to increase digital access in underserved and rural areas, especially in Africa. Community Pass is a social enterprise initiative that digitises and connects remote and rural communities to governments, NGOs and private-sector services.
As part of this initiative, Mastercard aims toregister 15 million users in Africa within five yearsthrough the platform. Mastercard Community Pass has already reached1.2 million smallholder farmers in Ugandaand represents our unwavering commitment to financial empowerment Through theMobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance: Mastercard and key stakeholders aim to expand access to digital services for 100 million individuals and businesses by 2034. Since launching in May 2024, the MADE Alliance has engaged in Kenya by:
[/paywall]
