Mastercard expanded its acceptance network across Africa by 45% in 2025, marking a significant milestone that is bringing millions of additional consumers and small businesses into the continent’s rapidly growing digital economy. This achievement highlights the accelerated adoption of digital payments, technology, and innovation across Africa—progress that would traditionally have taken several years to realize.
This growth was driven by a year of strategic market expansion, increased investment, product innovation, and a strengthened on-ground presence, reinforcing Mastercard’s pivotal role in enabling Africa’s projected $1.5 trillion digital payments market by 2030.
Strengthening Mastercard’s Presence Across Africa
Over the past two years, Mastercard has intensified its expansion across the continent, establishing new offices in Ghana, Uganda, and Mauritius, with additional markets planned for launch in 2026. During this period, the company also increased its workforce by nearly 20%, strengthening local expertise and enabling the co-creation of solutions tailored to the unique needs of African communities and merchants.
In parallel, Mastercard advanced critical digital infrastructure, including tokenization enhancements, digital identity solutions, and virtual card innovations. These upgrades are designed to improve trust, security, and convenience across both online and in-person payment experiences.
SMEs at the Core of Mastercard’s Growth Strategy
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)—the backbone of Africa’s economy—remain central to Mastercard’s strategy. With consumer spending expected to grow across key markets such as Kenya (4%), Morocco (3.4%), Nigeria (6%), and South Africa (1.9%), demand for digital financial tools has increased significantly.
Digital payment solutions enable SMEs to meet evolving business needs by facilitating seamless payments, improving access to credit, strengthening financial resilience, and enhancing safety and security in an increasingly digital environment.
These solutions include tap-on-phone technology, the Mastercard Payment Gateway System (MPGS) for e-commerce transactions, QR payment capabilities such as QR Pay by Link and QR-on-Card, point-of-sale solutions, and business payment controls that enable virtual card issuance.
Through pan-African collaborations that support cross-border payments, credit access, and marketplace digitization, Mastercard has launched 15 SME-focused programs over the past 18 months. These initiatives, delivered in partnership with governments, FMCGs, financial institutions, and telecom providers, are helping SMEs scale and compete more effectively.
Key SME Milestones
South Africa: Advancing financial inclusion through partnerships across financial and non-financial institutions, improving access to credit and empowering thousands of SMEs to grow sustainably.
Morocco: Co-developing the country’s first digital marketplace with BCP, the Ministry of Handicrafts, and Paysky, benefiting 2.3 million artisans.
Nigeria:
Launching QR-on-Card solutions with UBA and WEMA, enabling 1.8 million SMEs and gig workers to accept seamless digital payments.
Introducing USD card solutions with Zenith Bank, supporting over 50,000 SMEs engaged in cross-border trade.
Kenya, Mauritius, Tanzania: Partnering with NMB, AfrAsia, Family Bank, and KCB to empower more than 200,000 SMEs with digital solutions.
Advancing Financial Inclusion in Underserved Communities
Mastercard is expanding digital access in underserved and rural communities through its Community Pass initiative—a social enterprise platform designed to connect remote populations with governments, NGOs, and private-sector services.
The company aims to register 15 million users across Africa within five years through Community Pass. To date, the initiative has reached 1.2 million smallholder farmers in Uganda, demonstrating Mastercard’s commitment to inclusive economic growth and financial empowerment.
Through the Mobilizing Access to the Digital Economy (MADE) Alliance, Mastercard and its partners aim to extend access to digital services to 100 million individuals and businesses by 2034. Since its launch in May 2024, the MADE Alliance has delivered impactful outcomes in Kenya, including:
Providing affordable high-speed internet and digital skills training to 13 cooperatives, reaching over 10,000 farmers.
Deploying Farm Pass to digitize the profiles of more than 80,000 farmers.
Building capacity for 250,000 farmers through partnerships with local cooperatives.
Executive Perspectives
Mark Elliott, Division President, Africa, Mastercard, said:
“2025 has been a defining year for Mastercard in Africa. From expanding acceptance to introducing new digital capabilities, our focus has been on solutions that place people and small businesses at the center of the digital economy. Through strong collaborations, we continue to connect more individuals and enterprises to the financial system, driving greater financial inclusion and economic opportunity as we move toward a $1.5 trillion digital economy by 2030.”
Gabriel Swanepoel, Country Manager, Southern Africa, added:
“With South Africa leading Mastercard’s real-time payments capabilities globally, 2025 marked a breakthrough year for innovation. Our work on digital identity solutions has further strengthened secure, frictionless digital commerce across the region.”
Looking Ahead: AI Powering Africa’s Next Digital Transformation
Mastercard anticipates that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and agentic commerce will shape the next phase of digital commerce, with Africa’s AI market projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2030.
In 2026 and beyond, Mastercard will continue expanding across markets, advancing financial inclusion, and introducing locally relevant digital solutions—while investing in the infrastructure required to support a more secure, connected, and resilient African digital economy.
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