Africa is on the periphery of becoming one of the leading emerging markets for digital-first payments, and Orange Money is helping to lead that charge.
A market trader in Dakar receives a payment via mobile phone. She doesn’t carry change, and neither does her customer but the transaction takes seconds. Scenarios like this, now common across the continent, reflect how digital wallets are becoming essential in everyday life.
This example is typical, not fictionalised. Across Africa, millions are using services like Orange Money for payments, transfers, and savings. For many, it’s the first step into formal finance.
In Western markets, mobile wallets offer added convenience. But in much of Africa, they serve a more critical purpose: providing financial access where banks are scarce or difficult to reach.
The mobile money trend began in earnest with the launch of M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007. It created a model where telecoms, rather than banks, led the drive for inclusion. That model has since scaled rapidly. According to GSMA’s The State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2024, Africa had 2.1 billion registered mobile money accounts last year. Users made 81.8 billion transactions, valued at $1.68 trillion.
Rising smartphone use and internet access are accelerating the trend. Players such as Orange, MTN, and Airtel have expanded their mobile wallet offerings, tailored to regional needs. While global platforms like Apple Pay and Google Pay dominate in developed markets, Orange Money has become a leading name in several African countries, offering services from utility bill payments to micro-savings.
The result is a fast-changing landscape, where mobile-led financial services are reshaping how people move and manage money; and where inclusion is not just a benefit, but a baseline.
“The mobile payment system is crucial in African markets, where credit cards are not as widely used as in Europe and everything is generally done with cash. The most important thing for our customers is trust,” said Joëlle Hazoume Alao, Business Developer, Program Director and Board Member of Orange Money.
For Alao and Orange Money, the goal of promoting and achieving financial inclusion across Africa is forged through good network coverage, enhanced security protection and ensuring a good quality of service.
Orange Money breaks down these core objectives into three services which help boost financial inclusion; payment of bills with emblematic partners, payments online, and merchant payments with QR codes.
Alao highlighted the “mobile payment system is crucial in African markets, where credit cards are not as widely used as in Europe”, and why trust is one of the single most important factors for a customer choosing a mobile payment partner like Orange Money.
The company’s support for bill payments for everyday spending on electricity, water or school fees, ensures trust for the customer as these essential payments are quick and handled securely to be able to be transferred from account-to-account.
Trust is a recurring essential for African consumers when it comes to adopting mobile payments, which is why Orange Money partnered with Mastercard to fuel adoption rates.
The partnership is still at the project stage, but the plan is to roll out Mastercard-backed virtual cards, beginning in Mali, with six other countries to follow. These virtual cards will allow users to make international payments online with merchants that accept Mastercard.
By linking its platform to a globally recognised financial brand, Orange Money aims to strengthen its position and reassure consumers that they can transact safely at home and beyond as long as they remain connected.
While Alao revealed the partnership is still at the project stage, Mastercard-backed virtual cards will initially launch in Mali, followed by six other countries, to gain access to the ability to make international payments to millions of global merchants that accept Mastercard.
The trust and association with Mastercard ensures Orange Money can garner support for virtual card payments as long as consumers and businesses remain connected online.
Why connectivity is the glue
Several African countries, such as Chad and Burundi, have limited online access in areas where internet penetration rates are significantly lower to that of Europe and other regions.
A Business Insider: Africa report from April 2024 revealed over 123 million Nigerian people are not connected to the internet, being the country with the highest number of people without access to the internet.
Other countries in the report outlined Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda as the other four countries topping the list. All five of these countries have similar roadblocks when it comes to accessing the internet; a lack of online infrastructure, high internet costs, and political unrest causing outages for security reasons.
“Orange Bank Africa is making a significant contribution to providing access to financial services to as many people as possible, by simplifying access to innovative banking solutions directly from cell phones.”
Seeking a remedy to solve these issues, Alao revealed Orange Money’s Payments Online feature enables registered merchants to connect with its APIs to facilitate mobile transactions.
Furthermore, Orange’s QR code payment enabler helps both the merchant and consumer at physical terminals. Available across 17 different African countries, this QR code solution aims to help those merchants who find it a “real challenge to digitalise our services, to enable them a differentiated experience,” said Alao.
QR code payments have taken off in countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries as they require minimal hardware integration and ensure a quick, seamless payment process.
For African merchants, this payment method could prove vital in order to appreciate the payment preference of customers, while also scaling growth and retaining customer loyalty, but this is not the only service Orange Money provides in its financial inclusion mission.
Microlending opens a new inclusion door
Perhaps one of the single most important financial services available to Africans in underbanked areas at the moment is micro-lending.
This service ensures customers and businesses can access small loans to enable them to either support their finances or grow their businesses that otherwise would not have been possible due to living in an underserved area.
Alao noted that due to banks not providing instant credit to underserved African countries, Orange Money set up Orange Bank Africa in order to support customers and businesses with microloans.
“Orange Bank Africa is making a significant contribution to providing access to financial services to as many people as possible, by simplifying access to innovative banking solutions directly from cell phones,” said Alao.
He provided the example of a farmer wanting to borrow an amount equivalent to between $8-15 (between 5000 or 10000 CFA francs). “[They] cannot borrow the money from a bank or a microfinance institution, especially without having to travel to a bank, and without having the appropriate paperwork, a regular employment contract or salary,” Alao explained.
With Orange Bank Africa, the facilitation of microloans that can be sent in less than 10 seconds to mobile money accounts is one of the most profound examples of how fintech has seeped into the continent.
Understanding digital-firsts African markets
The fabled ‘Big Four’ fintech African markets of Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, according to Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN), have led the continent’s fintech investment growth.
GFTN’s Africa Fintech Landscape 2024 Year in Review report revealed the four countries accounted for 76% of the $857m invested in Africa’s fintech sector last year, albeit this was down 45% from the $1.6bn invested in 2023.
Despite the downturn, African businesses have increasingly sought and adopted digital-first payment solutions to counteract financial inclusion, regulation and market barriers.
“In most of the countries where we operate, there is a good take-up of mobile money”, said Alao, as she explained why customers are “either sensitive to prices, or more importantly, to the customer experience”.
She said: “Adoption rates are higher in urban areas due to higher internet coverage and smartphone penetration. In rural areas, usage is lower but growing with network coverage. The regulatory environment is also a key success or failure factor for mobile money adoption rates.”
While the future of Africa’s fintech sector appears to be on an upward trajectory, with GFTN citing McKinsey & Co. sata that it will reach $47bn in revenue by 2028, there are aforementioned boundaries still in place in specific markets obstructing widespread adoption of digital-first payments.
Alao recognises Orange Money typically identifies young adults as those who are more tech-savvy and open to digital payments. She also highlighted how small business owners are a “target segment for payments and microlending”.
Like with many differentiating markets, understanding localisation and the payment preferences of consumers and businesses is imperative before entry, as it could be the difference between hitting a home run on the first inning, or falling at the first hurdle.
Room for improvement
Emerging markets, like those within Africa, have had to adopt digital-first solutions due to market conditions and less opportunities compared to their mature counterparts. But this also causes these markets to remain in line with the trends of emerging technologies.
Alao acknowledges the “capabilities offered by AI” as a driver of mobile and digital payments as the technology can not be used to accelerate payments, but also payment support for customers in real-time.
“We will also be able to increase our reach with vocal features, increase customer protection by detecting fraud earlier, and by adjusting credit offers in order to prevent over-indebtedness,” added Alao.
As Orange Money continues its bid to be a leader in Africa’s digital transformation, there may come a time when financial inclusion is achieved in a large majority of its countries. This then will enable the region to tap into innovative payment solutions occurring across the globe, such as digital currencies and embedded finance.
But for now, Africa is the leading region for mobile payments globally and can lend its own expertise in this field to the likes of the US, UK and teach how to build effective, quick and seamless mobile payment infrastructures.
