PawaPay, a leading pan-African payments aggregator, has processed three billion successful mobile money transactions through its platform – a milestone that reflects growing demand from businesses that need to collect and send payments reliably across multiple African markets.
The third billion was processed in under nine months, three months faster than the previous billion. Daily transaction volumes nearly doubled over the same period, rising from approximately 2.4 million to five million.
African mobile money grew 26% in transaction value last year, with merchant payments globally up 50% to $155 billion (GSMA State of the Industry Report 2026). PawaPay’s transaction volumes have grown faster than the broader market across several of the sectors it supports.
Mobile money increasingly sits behind a long tail of smaller businesses across the continent: from optical chains like Lapaire processing eye-test and glasses payments across multiple markets, to e-commerce operators in cities like Kampala, education technology platforms collecting parent payments, and retail businesses processing daily takings.
PawaPay connects businesses to almost 50 money operators across 20 African markets through a single API, giving access to more than a billion wallets, with direct regulatory licences where required by local frameworks. The company has processed over €10 billion in payments to date.
PawaPay supports merchants through a single integration that manages operator connectivity, settlement, FX, reconciliation and regulatory coverage across its markets. Since 2022, the company has also used stablecoins within its treasury operations to reduce settlement float and improve predictability across different currencies.
Heiti Allak, Director of Product at PawaPay, said businesses expanding across Africa should not have to build a payments company inside their own organisation.
He points out that is what happens when each new market adds operator relationships, settlement flows, support processes and treasury requirements.
“PawaPay takes that complexity away from the business, enabling them to focus on their customers and growth. Three billion transactions is what mobile money looks like when it sits behind everyday economic activity, from transport and subscriptions to remittance and humanitarian support.”
Over the past six years, PawaPay has supported businesses using mobile money across sectors including remittance, transport, digital services and humanitarian payments. Companies including Deriv and GiveDirectly rely on PawaPay to operate across multiple African markets through a single integration.
