PawaPay’s vision: empowering businesses in africa’s mobile money landscape

Ismaël Kouassi, Côte d’Ivoire Director for PawaPay: PawaPay acts as a crucial enabler, connecting enterprises to Africa’s vibrant mobile money economy.

Ismaël Kouassi, the Côte d’Ivoire Director for PawaPay, a technology fintech specializing in African mobile money solutions, highlighted in a recent interview that the company positions itself as a technological facilitator. PawaPay enables businesses, banks, and SMEs to access multiple payment ecosystems through a single integration. He specified that their core function is to streamline payments, disbursements, transaction monitoring, and the overall management of financial flows.

According to Kouassi, Côte d’Ivoire and the broader West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) stand out as some of Africa’s most dynamic regions for digital payments today. This momentum is fueled by widespread mobile money adoption, advanced infrastructures like the BCEAO’s PI-SPI interoperable platform, and a rapidly evolving financial environment. The region is firmly establishing itself as a significant hub for fintech players. Ismaël Kouassi also believes that the synergy between traditional banks and mobile money will be a primary driver of financial growth in the coming years, particularly benefiting SMEs. These businesses will gain access to a wider array of financial services through enhanced integration of digital flows. With this outlook, PawaPay is committed to continuously lowering technical and operational barriers to accelerate trade, investment, and economic integration across the continent.

PawaPay presents itself as a payment infrastructure company offering a unique integration, a unified dashboard, and consolidated treasury services across approximately twenty African nations. What precisely does this infrastructure role encompass? Where do your responsibilities end, and those of mobile money operators, banks, payment processors, or e-wallet issuers begin?

The simplest way to understand PawaPay is to view our company as a facilitator, enabling businesses to seamlessly connect with Africa’s mobile money economy. Mobile money has emerged as one of the continent’s most vital financial infrastructures. Data from the GSMA indicates that over $2 trillion transacted through mobile money services globally in 2025, representing a doubling of transaction value in just four years. This underscores that mobile money is no longer an emerging payment method but a fundamental component of African commerce.

Our role is to provide businesses with access to this extensive ecosystem via a single, streamlined integration.

This could involve empowering a money transfer company to send funds directly to mobile wallets, assisting an internet service provider in collecting subscriptions, supporting an urban mobility platform in paying its drivers, or enabling digital enterprises to serve customers across multiple African markets. We deliver the technological layer that orchestrates payments, disbursements, transaction tracking, flow management, and reconciliation. Mobile money operators retain responsibility for customer accounts and the issuance of electronic money. Banks continue to provide core banking services and fund custody. Regulators ensure market integrity and oversight. While mobile money serves as a critical infrastructure powering African commerce, our mission is to ensure businesses can easily tap into it across diverse markets.

PawaPay currently operates in 20 African markets. What guided the selection of your initial target markets, and what criteria direct your expansion today?

From the outset, our strategy focused on markets where mobile money already played a significant role in daily economic activity. Africa has pioneered some of the world’s most successful digital payment ecosystems, and we aimed to be present where businesses were actively seeking to engage with their customers via mobile money. Today, three key factors continue to shape our growth. The first is client demand. We closely monitor the markets where our clients are expanding and seeking to reach new consumers. Companies such as Bolt, Yango, LemFi, or GiveDirectly operate across multiple countries, and their evolving needs naturally influence our strategic priorities. The second factor is the robustness of the local payment ecosystem.

We prioritize markets where mobile money, digital commerce, and financial services are increasingly integral to the economy.

Finally, we place considerable importance on the potential for long-term partnerships. Infrastructure development is a multi-year endeavor. Building trusted relationships with operators, financial institutions, and other ecosystem players is paramount. Our objective is not merely to add countries but to construct comprehensive coverage that empowers businesses to operate effectively across the continent.

Côte d’Ivoire, and more broadly the UEMOA region, is frequently cited as a future regional hub for fintech and finance. What makes this area particularly attractive for a pan-African payment infrastructure? What elements truly differentiate it?

I would even assert that UEMOA is already one of Africa’s most pivotal regions for digital payments. West Africa processed nearly $500 billion in mobile money transactions in 2025 and boasts over 517 million registered mobile money accounts, making it the most active region globally in terms of operational services.

Within this dynamic landscape, Côte d’Ivoire holds a strategic position. It is the leading economy in UEMOA, a major financial center for the region, and a market with over 28 million registered mobile money accounts and more than 13 million active accounts.

What is particularly noteworthy is the deliberate investment in regional financial infrastructures. The BCEAO’s instant payment interoperable platform, PI-SPI, serves as an excellent example. By April 2026, over 80 institutions were already connected, including banks, electronic money institutions, and microfinance institutions. For businesses and financial institutions alike, the quality of payment infrastructure directly determines their capacity to participate in economic activity. For a pan-African infrastructure provider like PawaPay, this represents a considerable advantage. A regulatory decision or a partnership forged in Côte d’Ivoire can potentially impact several countries within the region. The depth of the banking sector, the high adoption rate of mobile money, the entrepreneurial dynamism, and Abidjan’s geographical position as a regional economic center also contribute significantly to its unique appeal.

When a Francophone African bank collaborates with a payment infrastructure like PawaPay, what tangible benefits does it observe beyond technical access to mobile payments? How might this influence client acquisition, service costs, liquidity management, compliance, fraud prevention, or the offerings tailored for SMEs?

The primary point to emphasize is the complementary nature of banks and payment infrastructures. Banks remain central to settlement, liquidity management, compliance, customer relationships, and broader financial services. This fundamental role remains unchanged. What is evolving, however, is the increasing prominence of mobile money in daily economic life.

According to the GSMA, transfers between bank accounts and mobile wallets reached approximately $167 billion in 2025.

Flows in the reverse direction are reaching comparable levels. Therefore, the future is not a choice between “bank or mobile money,” but rather a robust integration of “bank and mobile money.” An infrastructure like PawaPay enables banks to access multiple payment ecosystems through a single connection, enhancing visibility over financial flows, simplifying treasury management, and expanding their capacity to serve clients. This is particularly relevant for SMEs. Many of these businesses already collect payments via mobile money. Banks that can integrate these flows into their financial service offerings can deliver greater value to these growing enterprises.

How do you envision the evolution of the mobile money ecosystem over the next five years? Will growth drivers primarily be merchant payments, mass disbursements, government payments, e-commerce, B2B transactions, savings-credit, or cross-border usage?

One of the most compelling phenomena today is that growth is simultaneously emerging from multiple segments. Consumer adoption is already well-established across numerous markets.

In UEMOA, financial inclusion rates rose from 56% to 71% between 2018 and 2022, largely attributed to digital financial services and mobile money.

Merchant payments perfectly illustrate this dynamic. Studies show their volume increased by over 40% in 2025, making this one of the ecosystem’s most vibrant segments. This trend reflects a deeper reality: mobile money is progressively becoming an everyday tool for commerce. We observe this across digital services, internet subscriptions, transportation, education, retail, and many other sectors. Cross-border payments will also continue to expand as African businesses operate in more markets. Mobile money is no longer a niche product; it has evolved into an essential infrastructure for African commerce.

The mutual recognition agreement for licenses between Ghana and Rwanda was seen as a significant indicator for African cross-border payments. What does it reveal, in your view, about the evolution of regulatory cooperation among African jurisdictions? Is this a precedent that can be replicated on a large scale, or is it an advancement still highly specific to certain conditions?

I believe it reflects a growing, fundamental trend visible across the continent. African regulators acknowledge that trade, investment, and the digital economy are becoming increasingly integrated, and that regulatory cooperation can foster economic growth while maintaining necessary safeguards. The Ghana-Rwanda agreement is one such example. UEMOA’s harmonized framework is another. While the approaches differ, they convey the same reality: economic activity now extends far beyond national borders. A single, universally applicable model is unlikely to emerge, but the increasing willingness to collaborate, share experiences, and construct common frameworks represents a highly positive development for African trade and investment. Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to support the growth of cross-border payments.

Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to support the growth of cross-border payments.  

Many stakeholders envision a future fluid and interoperable African payment network. What, in your opinion, is the realistic path toward achieving this goal? Which prerequisites must be met as a priority?

The encouraging aspect is that the fundamental building blocks are already in place. Mobile money adoption is robust. Financial institutions continue to invest in digital infrastructures. Initiatives like PAPSS, PI-SPI, and several regional interoperability programs demonstrate a shared ambition to strengthen connectivity. The next phase hinges on enhanced collaboration among operators, banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators. The objective should not solely be to accelerate payments.

The objective must be to bolster commerce, trade, and economic participation across the entire continent.

When businesses can more easily serve customers in multiple countries, when consumers have more options, and when financial institutions access a larger regional market, the entire ecosystem benefits. However, technology alone will not suffice. We must also address critical issues related to currency management, compliance, fraud prevention, and the governance of payment networks.

What role can infrastructure companies like PawaPay play in supporting the growth of a regional hub such as Côte d’Ivoire? Where can you create the most significant value?

Our role is to alleviate friction. Whenever a business seeks to expand into multiple African markets, it encounters substantial technical, regulatory, and operational complexities. An infrastructure provider like PawaPay simplifies this expansion process.

We assist businesses, banks, and fintechs in gaining rapid access to multiple markets through a single, unified platform.

For a regional hub like Côte d’Ivoire, this translates into increased investment, greater innovation, and more businesses capable of operating regionally and even continent-wide. The most significant value we can generate is to accelerate the circulation of funds, services, and economic opportunities throughout the continent. In our view, the next stage of African financial development will not only be digital; it will also be profoundly pan-African.