Publications
SIIPS 2023 Executive Summary
6 November 2023
Africa continues to make strides in the growth of digital financial services (DFS) as innovation and regulatory shifts shape the landscape. Digital payments are unleashing a technology revolution, supported by financial service stakeholders who are innovating and collaborating to unlock both domestic and cross‑border socio-economic opportunities for Africans. In most of the markets, however, households and small businesses over-rely on cash, especially for daily low-value transactions.
The State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems in Africa 2023 (SIIPS 2023) is in its second edition and will be repeated annually. The report aims to inform public-sector and private-sector players in Africa and beyond about the developments in the instant retail payment system (IPS) ecosystem in Africa, including an assessment of the inclusivity of such systems, both in functionality (accessible to all end-users) and governance (all licensed payment providers have fair access and design input opportunities). For this report, only systems with live transactions and functionality as of June 2023 were included. The data in this report was gathered from publicly available resources and data shared by select central banks and switch operators in Africa from January to June 2023. It was supported by extensive stakeholder interviews during the same period. The consumer research was conducted between February and March 2023.