In West Africa, the financial landscape is rapidly shifting. While cash remains in use, digital payments are now surging, reshaping how businesses and individuals transact. In 2024, Nigeria processed a record ₦1.07 quadrillion ($2.3 trillion) in electronic transactions, a nearly 80% increase from the previous year. In Ghana, mobile money transactions reached GHS 3.02 trillion ($196.7 billion).

This growth is evident in everyday commerce, mobile money and instant payment systems are increasingly the norm, facilitating faster, cheaper, and more secure transactions. Digital payments are becoming the backbone of commerce, connecting urban and rural areas, enabling small businesses to thrive, and laying the groundwork for a truly inclusive digital economy.

The Hidden Cost of Cash

Cash-heavy economies are expensive to maintain. Central banks spend heavily on printing, transporting, and securing notes. Informality compounds the cost: according to the World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2023 report published by the International Labour Organization (ILO), roughly 83% of jobs in Africa, and 85% in Sub-Saharan Africa, are informal. Most of these jobs remain largely untaxed, creating a fiscal deficit that constrains public investment in health, education, and infrastructure.

Cash transactions also make it harder to track economic flows and ensure transparency in public spending. By digitizing government payments, such as salaries, subsidies, and procurement, countries can strengthen accountability and rebuild trust in financial systems. While physical money may feel secure, it slows economic momentum. Digital payments circulate faster, create data trails that improve credit access, and open doors for small businesses to reach broader markets.

Why Cash Still Clings On

The barriers are not only technological but also human and structural. Many Africans still trust what they can hold, shaped by past experiences of banking failures or digital fraud. Connectivity gaps, limited merchant acceptance, and high transaction fees further discourage digital adoption. Even in advanced markets like Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, many users receive digital transfers only to withdraw them immediately as cash. The digital promise remains partial without affordability, trust, and usability.

Building Systems for Everyone

Across the continent, several governments are proving that deliberate and determined policies can make a difference. Rwanda’s cashless public transport system have each brought millions of new users into formal finance. This initiative show that digitization succeeds when it is designed for inclusion—when it reduces costs, supports livelihoods, and makes daily transactions simpler for ordinary people.

At AfricaNenda Foundation, we work with central banks, policymakers, IPS operators, and financial inclusion advocates to break down barriers to digital access and accelerate the rollout of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (IIPS) across Africa. Our support ranges from helping governments assess readiness and design payment schemes to providing technical assistance, training, and data for scaling up adoption. We also drive policy dialogue, benchmarking, and capacity building to strengthen the ecosystem and ensure that IIPS serve everyone, from small businesses and farmers to women entrepreneurs. Through this work, we are building the digital rails that make inclusion possible. We also invest in data and research to track progress and uncover the barriers keeping people in cash-based systems, insights we share each year through our State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems (SIIPS) in Africa report.

The Path Forward

Reducing dependence on cash will take collaboration, bold leadership, and targeted investment. Based on AfricaNenda’s experience supporting governments and payment ecosystem actors, five priorities can accelerate progress:

1. Digitize public payments. Governments can lead by example by ensuring salaries, social transfers, and procurement are processed through inclusive instant payment systems, improving transparency and efficiency.
2. Empower small merchants. Lower onboarding costs, expand affordable digital tools, and integrate informal traders and small businesses into interoperable payment systems to drive scale.
3. Simplify compliance. Digitizing taxes, permits, and public fees reduces administrative burdens and encourages businesses to operate formally.
4. Create an enabling environment. Clear, inclusive regulation and regional interoperability frameworks are essential to attract investment and foster innovation — areas where AfricaNenda continues to provide technical support and advocacy.
5. Measure what matters. Data-driven tools, such as the SIIPS in Africa report, help policymakers track progress, identify gaps, and design evidence-based interventions.

From Exclusion to Empowerment

Moving beyond cash is a path to empowerment. Inclusive instant payment systems give women greater financial autonomy, help small businesses expand, and allow rural communities to participate fully in national and regional markets, inspiring a new wave of economic growth and opportunity.

AfricaNenda’s mission is to make this transformation inclusive, sustainable, and scalable. We work with partners such as central banks, policy makers, Digital financial services providers and IPS operators to ensure that by 2030, over 260 million more Africans gain instant access to affordable digital payments. Our expertise and experience in financial inclusion make us a trusted partner in this journey.

As we prepare to launch SIIPS Report 2025, we invite stakeholders of the financial ecosystem to recognize their vital role in this transformation. The insights from SIIPS 2025 will offer a roadmap for accelerating Africa’s journey toward a truly inclusive digital economy.