Selling beyond South Africa
Getting paid across Africa.
The continent is not one market, it is fifty-four, loosely stitched together by a few pan-African platforms. Here is who accepts what, how Africans actually pay, and how the cross-border rails are changing.
Cross-border availability, pricing and regulatory treatment vary by country, legal entity, currency, payment rail and merchant activity. This overview is not legal, tax, exchange-control or market-entry advice. Confirm the current local rules and exact contracting entity in every market before launch.
The rails
How Africa actually pays.
Cards are a minority rail in most of Africa. The method mix swings hard by country, so design your checkout for the market, not for Johannesburg.
| Rail | Where it dominates | Notes for merchants |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile money | Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Francophone West Africa | The default mass-market rail: M-Pesa, MTN MoMo, Airtel Money, Wave. |
| Bank transfer / instant | Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt | Account-to-account is huge in Nigeria; open banking is accelerating it. |
| Cards | South Africa, Egypt, urban Nigeria and Kenya | Still key for e-commerce. Verve is Nigeria's domestic scheme. |
| USSD | Nigeria, much of West Africa | Works on feature phones with no internet. Reaches the unbanked. |
| QR | Growing continent-wide | Scan-to-pay via wallets and card schemes. |
| Stablecoins | Cross-border B2B and treasury | Rising where hard currency is scarce. Yellow Card leads. |
Accept payments
Pan-African merchant gateways.
The providers you integrate to collect money across borders. No single one covers the continent cleanly, so pick by target market.
| Provider | Reach | Methods | Indicative fee* | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FwFlutterwave | ~35 countries | Cards, bank, mobile money, vouchers | ~2.9% + R1 SA; wider by corridor | Broad pan-African acceptance |
| PsPaystack | NG, GH, KE, SA (+ early access) | Cards, EFT, mobile money, Apple Pay | NG 1.5%+₦100 (cap ₦2k); SA ~2.9%+R1 | Developer-led businesses |
| TgCellulant Tingg | ~35 countries | Mobile money, bank, cards, USSD, QR | ~1% MoMo KE, 2% outside, 2.8% cards | One integration, many markets |
| DPDPO Pay | East & Southern Africa | Cards, EFT, MoMo, scan-to-pay | Quote-based | Travel and multi-market contracts |
| IsInterswitch | Nigeria-centric | Cards (Verve), switching, bill pay | Quote-based | Deep Nigerian acceptance |
| YCYellow Card | 35+ countries | Stablecoins (USDT/USDC/PYUSD), 50+ fiat | API / treasury pricing | B2B cross-border and treasury |
*Directional, ex-VAT and highly corridor-dependent. Confirm per market before relying on a figure.
The wallets your customers hold
Mobile money and consumer giants.
Less "integrate to accept", more the rails your African customers already use. Coverage here decides conversion.
| Provider | Type | Scale | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| MPM-Pesa | Mobile money (Safaricom) | ~$292bn / yr, ~37bn txns | Kenya, regional |
| MoMTN MoMo | Telco wallet | Multi-market | West, Central, Southern Africa |
| OPOPay | Super-app | ~$3.1bn val, 50M+ users | Nigeria |
| MnMoniepoint | Agent / POS banking | ~₦412tn in 2025 | Nigeria, entering East Africa |
| PmPalmPay | Consumer wallet | 90M+ users with OPay | Nigeria |
| WvWave | Low-cost mobile money | Fast-growing | Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire |
| ChChipper Cash | Consumer P2P | Cross-border transfers | Multiple African markets |
The cross-border layer
Settlement is the hard part.
Transfers between African countries can be costly and indirect where money routes through correspondent banks. Newer settlement and interoperability initiatives aim to reduce that friction.
PAPAPSS
- Afreximbank and African Union real-time settlement, launched 2022 to support AfCFTA. Banks settle in local currencies, no dollar correspondent.
- Beneficiaries receive within about 120 seconds. Live in roughly 12 countries, around 15 central banks signed.
- South Africa and the SARB are not yet live on PAPSS, a real gap for SA businesses trading regionally.
OnOnafriq
- Johannesburg-based interoperability provider. Its published reach and wallet counts must be checked against its current materials before use.
- B2B infrastructure for wallet-to-wallet, bank-to-wallet and merchant flows. Formerly MFS Africa.
- 2026: first wallet-based PAPSS pilot (Nigeria to Ghana) and Visa Pay to bridge card and mobile money.
Stablecoin settlement is an evolving B2B, treasury and remittance option in some corridors, not a default consumer-checkout recommendation. Provider authorisation, asset support, custody, counterparties, countries, exchange control, tax treatment and actual savings are fact-specific and must be verified before use.
If you are a South African business
Which stack for expanding north.
West and East Africa
- Flutterwave or Paystack for broad card and bank acceptance, plus expansion into markets one does not cover.
Many markets, one build
- Cellulant Tingg exposes local mobile money, bank and cards across roughly 35 countries through a single integration.
Design for mobile money
- Outside SA and urban centres, a card-only checkout converts poorly. Lead with M-Pesa, MTN MoMo or Wave.
Bringing that money home?
Revenue flowing back to a South African entity re-enters exchange control and SARS. The international guide covers the rails and the rules.