Connecting Africa’s wallets, unlocking Africa’s trade, smartly

Yesterday, Monday, 2 November, I joined discussions at the 15th Africa Internet Governance Forum at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, including a Smart Africa Steering Committee roundtable. My main message was that connecting Africa’s mobile money wallets across borders, alongside visa-free travel, could transform intra-African trade, significantly. At the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), we estimate that implementing both reforms could help raise intra-African trade from around 16% to more than 25% within five years. The opportunity is enormous. The figures I presented show that US$2.1 trillion flowed through mobile money wallets globally in 2025, with approximately US$1.4 trillion, two-thirds of the total, transacted in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa had some 1.2 billion registered accounts, while West Africa alone recorded approximately US$498 billion in transactions across 517 million accounts. These are accounts, rather than unique individuals. Yet our commercial strength remains constrained by fragmented markets, compared with intra-regional trade figures of approximately 59% in Asia and 68% in Europe. Fragmentation also makes payments expensive. It is estimated that more than 80% of payments between African countries pass through banks outside the continent, with associated payment and currency-conversion arrangements costing Africa approximately US$5.3 billion annually. Within states, we have built mobile money at extraordinary scale. Take Ghana, for instance, which was the first to do comprehensive mobile money interoperability, last August alone, over one billion mobile money transactions were recorded in one single month. We must now connect those wallets and put them to work for continental trade, for greater opportunities and jobs. Imagine a trader in Kumasi buying from a supplier in Abidjan: she pays in cedis from her wallet, and the supplier receives CFA francs quickly, securely and affordably. Neither needs to source dollars or carry cash across a border. Multiply that transaction across millions of businesses. Lower costs will release money for stock and expansion. Faster settlement will improve cash flow. Reliable transaction records can also support access to credit and insurance. For women, SMEs and young entrepreneurs, this could place Africa’s single market directly in their hands. But a trader who can pay a supplier must also be able to travel to inspect goods, negotiate and build trust, if need be. Free movement and seamless payments should, therefore, go hand in hand. Since the inaugural Africa Prosperity Dialogues in 2023, APN has brought together policymakers, the AfCFTA Secretariat, Smart Africa, GSMA Africa, telecommunications companies and financial institutions to advance this agenda. The 2024 Peduase Action Compact helped sustain that momentum. At the Sixth AU Mid-Year Coordination Meeting in Accra that July, leaders committed to working towards wider PAPSS participation, cross-border mobile money interoperability, connected payment channels, common regulatory safeguards and stronger digital infrastructure by 2027. This is what makes the timing and focus of APD 2027 significant. Trusted identity is essential to delivering these ambitions. This is why APN supports the Smart Africa Trust Alliance (SATA) and Smart Africa Data Exchange (SADX). SATA establishes the framework for cooperation; SADX enables national systems to securely verify and exchange information while countries retain control over their data. Nineteen countries have signed the SATA Declaration. Ghana, Benin and Rwanda have completed the first phase of the SADX pilot, demonstrating cross-border identity verification in a controlled testing environment. We believe this can help address a major obstacle to visa-free travel: governments’ uncertainty about visitors’ identities. Allowing authorised agencies to verify travellers against official records in their home countries, with privacy and security safeguards, could strengthen border management and greatly reduce those concerns. Trusted digital identity can also support access to financial services across borders. We are hopeful because progress is visible. Since our Make Africa Borderless Now! campaign began this year, several countries have introduced or announced visa-free policies for Africans. These sovereign decisions demonstrate growing political willingness to open our borders. Expanding participation in PAPSS and the 19 SATA signatories are equally encouraging. The foundations for freer movement, trusted identities and seamless payments are coming together. With sustained political leadership, regulatory cooperation and industry action, we can achieve significant progress towards continent-wide mobile money interoperability by the end of 2027. A system that allows authorised agencies to verify a visitor’s identity against official records in their home country, with appropriate privacy and security safeguards, could greatly reduce the uncertainty that fuels resistance to visa-free travel. Governments would have greater confidence about who is entering their countries, while traders and other travellers could face fewer delays and obstacles. We believe this can strengthen the political case for opening borders and, over time, support the identity checks needed to access financial services across countries. Connecting Africa’s identities, alongside its wallets, can help build the confidence needed to let our people move freely and trade more. This is the agenda for the Africa Prosperity Dialogues, taking place in Accra from 13–15 January 2027: “The Africa We Want Is Borderless. Move Freely. Pay Seamlessly. Trade More.” When Africans move, their money and businesses should move with them. For us at APN, free movement and seamless payments go hand in hand, and trusted digital identity can help connect the two. Join us to help make all this possible by registering: www.apd2027.africaprosperitynetwork.com The author is the Foundet and Executive Chairman of APN. He can be reached on gabby@africaprosperity.network