Mastercard, Mojaloop and AfricaNenda Explore Safer Instant Payments Across Africa

Mastercard has announced collaborations with the Mojaloop Foundation and AfricaNenda Foundation aimed at strengthening trust and interoperability in instant payments across Africa.

The partnerships, announced on 29 September 2026, focus on a growing part of the digital economy: account-to-account transactions that move funds without requiring users to rely exclusively on cards.

The instant-payment landscape

Mastercard cited industry data showing 36 live instant-payment systems across 31 African countries, collectively processing more than 64 billion transactions worth nearly $2 trillion in 2024.

Those network totals describe activity across the industry. They do not mean every African consumer can send an instant transfer to any other country.

What Mojaloop contributes

The Mojaloop Foundation maintains open-source software intended to support interoperable payment services. Its technology can help payment providers and financial institutions connect through shared arrangements instead of building every connection separately.

Mastercard said it will explore the application of A2A Protect, its account-to-account fraud-risk technology, alongside Mojaloop-related infrastructure. Exploring a capability is different from declaring a continent-wide deployment.

Why fraud protection is essential

Instant transfers can make commerce faster, but they can also create pressure for customers and payment providers to detect scams early. Suspicious accounts, unusual transfers and disputes all need timely attention.

Technology alone is not enough. Effective consumer protection also requires clear rules around mistaken payments, fraud reporting and how institutions cooperate when something goes wrong.

AfricaNenda's role

AfricaNenda promotes more inclusive payment infrastructure and tracks how instant-payment systems develop across the continent. Its work offers a policy and ecosystem perspective alongside the technical work undertaken by payments companies.

The next test

Retailers and customers will care less about the names of payment partnerships than whether their transfers work reliably, cost less and come with meaningful safeguards.

ITBank will monitor whether the collaborations result in measurable adoption, improved consumer protections and broader access for smaller financial institutions.

Source publication date: 29 September 2026.