- Major leap in digital payments access as Mastercard expands presence, products and financial inclusion initiatives
- New market entries, new hires and SME-focused collaborations unlock scale for Africa’s $1.5 trillion digital payments opportunity
Mastercard has grown its acceptance network across Africa by 45 percent 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.
Mastercard Deepens African Footprint with New Markets, New Teams
Over the past two years, Mastercard has accelerated its Africa expansion, opening new offices in Ghana, Uganda and Mauritius, with the aim of 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, Mastercard advanced key digital infrastructure—including tokenization upgrades, digital identity capabilities and virtual card enhancements—to bolster trust, safety and convenience across online and in-person payments.
SME Growth at the Center of Mastercard’s Business Strategy
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. 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 digitization. Fuelled by these cross-sector collaborations that include governments, FMCGs and Telcos, the company has launched 15 new SME-focused programs in the past 18 months.
Key SME milestones have included:
- South Africa: Driving financial inclusion in South Africa through our partners in the FI and Non-FI space, unlocking growth, addressing access-to-credit constraints, and empowering thousands of SMEs to scale and grow with confidence.
- Morocco: Co-developed the country’s first Digital Marketplace with BCP, the Ministry of Handicrafts and Paysky, benefiting 2.3 million artisans.
- Nigeria:
- New QR-on-Card solutions with UBA and WEMA enabling 1.8 million SMEs and gig workers to accept seamless payments.
- USD cards with Zenith Bank supporting 50,000+ SMEs with effortless cross-border trade.
- Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania: Collaborations with NMB, AfrAsia, Family Bank and KCB to empower 200,000+ SMEs with digital solutions.
Driving Financial Inclusion Across Underserved Communities
Mastercard is actively using Community Pass as part of its efforts to increase digital access in underserved and rural areas, especially in Africa. Community Pass is a social enterprise initiative that digitizes and connects remote, and rural communities to governments, NGOs, and private sector services.
As part of this initiative, Mastercard aims to register 15 million users in Africa within five years through the platform. Mastercard Community Pass has already reached 1.2 million smallholder farmers in Uganda and represents our unwavering commitment towards financial empowerment
Through the Mobilizing 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:
- Enabling affordable high-speed internet and digital training for 13 cooperatives, reaching 10,000+ farmers.
- Launching Farm Pass deployment to digitize profiles of more than 80,000 farmers.
- Building capacity for 250,000 farmers through local cooperative partners.
Executive Commentary
Mark Elliott, Division President, Africa, Mastercard:
“2025 has been a defining year for Mastercard in Africa. From acceptance growth to new digital capabilities, our focus has been on solutions that bring people and small businesses into the heart of the digital economy. Our collaborations across Africa will continue to connect more people and businesses to the financial system, helping drive greater financial inclusion and economic opportunity, as we collectively look towards a $1.5 trillion digital economy by 2030.”
Gabriel Swanepoel, Country Manager, Southern Africa:
“With South Africa driving Mastercard’s real-time payments capability globally, 2025 was a breakthrough year for innovation. Our collaboration on digital identity further strengthened secure, frictionless digital commerce.”
Looking Ahead: AI to Power Africa’s Next Digital Leap
Mastercard predicts that technologies such as AI and agentic commerce will define the next era of commerce, with Africa’s AI market projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2030.
In 2026, Mastercard will continue advancing financial inclusion, expanding across markets and introducing more locally relevant digital solutions—all while investing in the infrastructure needed to support a more secure and connected African economy.
