Nigeria Overtakes South Africa as Africa Largest Mobile Payment Market

Nigeria has displaced South Africa as Africa’s largest mobile payment market by transaction volume, processing N48 trillion in digital transactions in the most recent fiscal year.

The milestone reflects the rapid expansion of Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem, with platforms including OPay, Moniepoint and PalmPay collectively onboarding 24 million new digital payment users in the past 18 months.

CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso said Nigeria was on track to achieve its target of 95 percent financial inclusion by 2027.

International payment companies including PayPal, Stripe and Payoneer have all announced expanded Nigeria operations in the past year.