Safaricom’s M-Pesa processes $45 billion in Kenya-Côte d’Ivoire cross-border remittances under AfCFTA pilot

Safaricom’s mobile money platform M-Pesa processed $45 billion in cross-border remittances between Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire under the AfCFTA pilot program, officials said Tuesday. The milestone was achieved by leveraging Kenya’s early adoption of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and partnerships with regional firms to facilitate seamless digital trade and payments.

The mobile money service supports a new platform capable of processing 10,000 transactions per second, Ndegwa announced at the Connected Africa Summit in Nairobi. M-Pesa operates across eight countries, serving over 60 million customers and five million businesses, with more than 32 million users in Kenya alone, according to company records.

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said Tuesday that M-Pesa processes about 800 million dollars daily through more than 500 million transactions, underscoring the platform’s capacity to handle high-volume digital payments.

The $45 billion figure for cross-border remittances between Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire comes as part of a broader strategic alliance involving Safaricom, Coronation Group, and Access Holdings Plc. This partnership aims to establish remittance corridors linking East and West Africa, facilitating digital trade and payments under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) pilot program. According to officials, the alliance integrates Access Holdings’ Pan-African banking infrastructure, which spans 14 countries, with M-Pesa’s mobile money platform to expand remittance access across the continent.

Mr. Lopokoiyit, representing the partnership, said the initiative seeks to bring alive the AfCFTA spirit by exploring these corridors and enhancing financial inclusion. The collaboration is contingent on commercial negotiations, definitive agreements, internal approvals, and regulatory processes in key markets such as Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Kenya, sources confirmed. Access Holdings Chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede emphasized the role of this partnership in shaping Africa’s financial landscape, highlighting the combined strengths of Coronation Group’s technology-driven services in West Africa and Safaricom’s M-Pesa operations.

Kenya’s early adoption of the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) has positioned the country as a regional hub for digital trade and payments under AfCFTA, officials said at the 2025 World Trade Organization forum in Geneva. PAPSS enables seamless cross-border transactions by providing a unified payment platform for African countries. This integration supports Kenya’s efforts to diversify exports and boost intra-African trade, according to trade analysts.

Real Sources Africa (RSA), recognized as a national trading company under AfCFTA by the Kenyan government, has developed platforms such as BiasharaLink and Deal House to facilitate AfCFTA implementation. These platforms convert trade requests into executable transactions, leveraging a network of over 1,000 African diplomatic missions. RSA reports that African diplomatic missions receive approximately 3,500 trade-related requests monthly, though fewer than 1% currently result in formal deals, indicating room for growth in digital trade facilitation.

Sub-Saharan Africa received $55 billion in personal remittances from the African diaspora in 2023, with Kenya among the largest recipients, according to World Bank data cited in a Standard Bank report. These remittances often support critical sectors such as education and healthcare. The AfCFTA Secretariat’s 2024 analysis projects that digital finance inclusion could unlock an additional $40 billion in annual economic output by 2030, reinforcing the importance of scalable digital payment systems like M-Pesa.

M-Pesa, launched by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007, has become a benchmark for digital payments across Africa. The platform’s expansion into West Africa through partnerships reflects ongoing efforts to reduce transaction friction and foster government collaboration for digital transformation. Safaricom’s CEO Peter Ndegwa highlighted the importance of integrating regional systems such as PAPSS to support the AfCFTA’s objectives of increased intra-African trade and financial inclusion.

The pilot program’s next steps involve finalizing regulatory approvals and commercial agreements in targeted countries to scale the remittance corridors. The collaboration between Safaricom, Coronation Group, Access Holdings, and RSA aims to extend these digital financial services continent-wide, facilitating smoother and more cost-effective cross-border transactions under the AfCFTA framework.