Africa’s instant-payment ecosystem is set for another infrastructure boost as Mastercard, the Mojaloop Foundation and AfricaNenda Foundation strengthen collaboration around more secure and inclusive account-to-account payments across the continent.
The partnership is focused on improving the infrastructure behind instant payments, fraud prevention and consumer protection, particularly as more African markets move toward interoperable national and regional payment systems.
A key area of interest is Mastercard’s A2A Protect technology, which uses AI-powered risk intelligence to help banks and payment providers detect potentially fraudulent account-to-account transactions before funds are transferred.
Why This Matters for Africa
Instant payment systems are expanding rapidly across the continent, but interoperability alone is not enough.
As more consumers and businesses move funds digitally between banks, wallets and other financial institutions, payment providers also need stronger tools for:
- fraud detection
- transaction monitoring
- consumer protection
- dispute management
- real-time risk assessment
Mojaloop provides open-source infrastructure designed to help markets build interoperable instant-payment systems, while AfricaNenda works with governments, regulators and financial institutions to accelerate inclusive payment infrastructure across Africa.
Adding Mastercard’s fraud-prevention capabilities could strengthen the security layer around these systems as adoption increases.
Opportunity for PSPs and Fintech Companies
For African payment companies, developments around instant-payment infrastructure can directly affect how merchants collect and disburse funds.
PSPs, aggregators and fintech platforms serving sectors such as iGaming, Forex, digital assets and other online businesses increasingly depend on reliable local bank and wallet rails.
Stronger interoperability combined with fraud controls could therefore create more opportunities for companies building merchant payment, payout and cross-border solutions.
iBetAfrica Perspective
The collaboration demonstrates how Africa’s payment ecosystem is gradually moving beyond simple digitization toward interoperability, security and real-time infrastructure.
For iBetAfrica, the companies and institutions building these rails are increasingly important potential partners because they ultimately determine how digital businesses—including high-risk merchants—collect, move and settle money across African markets.
