Absa Bank Mozambique and M-Pesa signed a memorandum at the Maputo trade fair to link the Paga Fácil merchant service directly to Absa bank accounts
Absa Bank Mozambique and M-Pesa have signed a memorandum of understanding at the Maputo International Fair (FACIM 2026), formalising a working relationship that already spans several digital finance projects, according to Diário Económico. The two sides said the deal centres on products that make financial services easier to reach and manage for their customers.
The Maputo International Fair runs each year and gathers companies from across Mozambique’s economy, and it gave the two firms a public setting to confirm an alliance that had been building through earlier work together.
Vodacom operates M-Pesa in Mozambique, one of seven African markets where the service runs, and it reaches many customers that formal banks have struggled to sign up.
The platform processed $525.6bn (USD) across those markets in the year to March 2026 and counts more than 100 million financial-services customers, according to Vodacom.
Around 40% of adults in Mozambique hold a mobile money account, below the regional average of 64%, according to the International Finance Corporation, which leaves banks and operators room to bring unbanked merchants and customers into digital payments.
M-Pesa’s Paga Fácil connects to Absa accounts
Paga Fácil, the M-Pesa product merchants use to collect payments from customers, is at the heart of this newly announced collaboration, and the memorandum links it to Absa bank accounts so merchants can move the money they take in straight to the bank at no cost to the customer.
Those transfers usually settle within minutes, the two companies said, which gives merchants faster access to their takings and, by pulling mobile money and banking into a single flow, helps them reconcile incoming payments and manage cash flow through standard banking channels.
Reconciliation, the matching of recorded sales against money received, becomes harder when payments land across separate systems, the problem the integration sets out to reduce.
Support for M-Pesa agents
The agreement also reaches M-Pesa Agents and Super Agents, the outlets that hold float and move cash for the service, where connecting the two companies’ channels is meant to cut steps in daily operations and make it easier for agents to move and manage their funds.
Agent networks carry much of the traffic in mobile money markets, handling the cash-in and cash-out for customers who deal largely in notes and coins, so the speed at which an agent can shift money between M-Pesa and a bank account shapes how much business the agent can do in a day.
Agents often reload float from bank branches or other agents, so a delay in that cycle can leave a location unable to serve customers until money clears.
The signing responds to a need to keep liquidity available and moving as digital finance grows in Mozambique, the two institutions said, and Absa added that the shift opens room for closer integration between platforms and services and lets clients use the financial system more simply.
The arrangement works because the two sides play complementary roles, with the bank supplying accounts and settlement while M-Pesa supplies reach through its wallet and agent network, and both said they will keep looking for areas where those capabilities can combine to support a more integrated digital financial system in the country.
M-Pesa launched in Kenya in 2007 before expanding across parts of Africa, including Mozambique, and Vodacom took joint ownership of the brand and platform with Safaricom in 2020. Absa Bank Mozambique is part of Absa Group, the South African banking company.
