Ismaël Kouassi, PawaPay Côte d’Ivoire Director: We are a facilitator, empowering businesses to tap into Africa’s mobile money economy.
Ismaël Kouassi, the Côte d’Ivoire Director for PawaPay, a technology fintech specializing in African mobile money solutions, highlighted in a recent interview that the company positions itself as a technological enabler. PawaPay allows enterprises, banks, and SMEs to access diverse payment ecosystems through a single integration. He clarified that their core function is to streamline payments, disbursements, transaction tracking, and financial flow management.
Kouassi observed that Côte d’Ivoire and the broader UEMOA region stand out today as some of Africa’s most dynamic areas for digital payments. Driven by widespread mobile money adoption, advanced infrastructures like the BCEAO’s interoperable PI-SPI platform, and a rapidly evolving financial landscape, the region is solidifying its role as a key hub for fintech innovators. He also believes that the synergy between traditional banking and mobile money will be a primary catalyst for financial growth in the coming years, particularly benefiting SMEs by providing them greater access to financial services through enhanced integration of digital flows. In this context, PawaPay is committed to dismantling technical and operational barriers to accelerate trade, investment, and economic integration across the continent.
PawaPay presents itself as a payment infrastructure firm offering a singular integration, a unified dashboard, and consolidated treasury services across approximately twenty African nations. What exactly does this infrastructure role entail? Where do your responsibilities end, and those of mobile money operators, banks, payment processors, or e-wallet issuers begin?
The simplest way to understand PawaPay is to view us as a facilitator, enabling businesses to connect seamlessly with Africa’s mobile money economy. Mobile money has emerged as one of the continent’s most vital financial infrastructures. Industry data indicates that over $2 trillion flowed through mobile money services globally in 2025, representing a doubling of transaction value in just four years. This underscores that we are no longer discussing an emerging payment method, but rather an indispensable component of African commerce.
Our mission is to grant businesses access to this robust ecosystem via a single integration point.
This could involve empowering a money transfer company to send funds directly to mobile money wallets, assisting an internet service provider in collecting subscriptions, supporting an urban mobility platform in paying its drivers, or enabling digital businesses to serve customers across multiple African markets. We provide the technological layer that orchestrates payments, disbursements, transaction monitoring, flow management, and reconciliation. Mobile money operators retain responsibility for customer accounts and electronic money issuance. Banks continue to provide banking services and fund custody. Regulators ensure market integrity and oversight. While mobile money powers African commerce, our objective is to make it effortlessly accessible to businesses across numerous markets.
PawaPay currently operates in 20 African markets. What guided your selection of initial markets, and what criteria shape your expansion strategy today?
From our inception, we focused on markets where mobile money already played a significant role in daily economic activity. Africa has pioneered some of the world’s most effective digital payment ecosystems, and we aimed to be present where businesses were actively seeking to engage with their customers through mobile money. Today, three key factors continue to drive our expansion. Firstly, client demand. We closely monitor the markets where our clients are expanding and wish to reach new consumers. Companies like Bolt, Yango, LemFi, or GiveDirectly operate across several countries, and their requirements naturally influence our priorities. Secondly, the robustness of the local payment ecosystem.
We prioritize markets where mobile money, digital commerce, and financial services are increasingly integral to the economy.
Lastly, we place significant emphasis on the potential for long-term partnerships. Infrastructure development is a multi-year endeavor. Building trusted relationships with operators, financial institutions, and ecosystem players is crucial. Our goal isn’t merely to add countries, but to construct comprehensive coverage that empowers businesses to operate continent-wide.
Côte d’Ivoire, and more broadly the UEMOA region, are frequently cited as a future regional hub for fintech and finance. What makes this area particularly appealing for a pan-African payment infrastructure? What elements truly differentiate it?
I would contend that UEMOA is already one of Africa’s most significant regions for digital payments. West Africa processed nearly $500 billion in mobile money transactions in 2025 and boasts over 517 million registered mobile money accounts, making it the most active region globally in terms of operational services.
Within this dynamic landscape, Côte d’Ivoire holds a strategic position. It is UEMOA’s leading economy, a primary financial center in the region, and a market with over 28 million registered mobile money accounts and more than 13 million active accounts.
What is particularly noteworthy is the deliberate investment made in regional financial infrastructures. The interoperable instant payment platform (PI-SPI) implemented by the BCEAO serves as an excellent example. By April 2026, over 80 institutions were already connected, including banks, electronic money institutions, and microfinance entities. For businesses and financial institutions alike, the quality of payment infrastructures directly dictates their capacity to participate in economic activity. For a pan-African infrastructure like PawaPay, this represents a considerable advantage. A regulatory decision or a partnership forged in Côte d’Ivoire can potentially impact several countries across the region. The depth of the banking sector, the high adoption of mobile money, entrepreneurial dynamism, and Abidjan’s geographical position as a regional economic center also contribute significantly.
When a Francophone African bank collaborates with a payment infrastructure like PawaPay, what tangible benefits does it observe beyond technical access to mobile payments? How might this influence client acquisition, service costs, liquidity management, compliance, fraud prevention, or offerings for SMEs?
It’s crucial to emphasize that banks and payment infrastructures are complementary. Banks remain central to settlement, liquidity management, compliance, customer relationships, and broader financial services. This fundamental role remains unchanged. What is evolving, however, is the growing prominence of mobile money in daily economic life.
According to industry figures, transfers between bank accounts and mobile wallets reached approximately $167 billion in 2025.
Flows in the opposite direction are at comparable levels. Therefore, the future isn’t a choice between “bank or mobile money,” but rather “bank and mobile money.” An infrastructure like PawaPay enables banks to access multiple payment ecosystems through a single connection, enhancing visibility over financial flows, simplifying treasury management, and expanding their capacity to serve clients. This is particularly relevant for SMEs. Many already collect payments via mobile money. Banks that can integrate these flows into their financial service offerings can deliver greater value to these growing businesses.
How do you envision the evolution of the mobile money ecosystem over the next 5 years? Will growth primarily be driven by merchant payments, mass disbursements, government payments, e-commerce, B2B, savings-credit, or cross-border transactions?
One of the most compelling trends today is that growth is simultaneously originating from multiple segments. Consumer adoption is already well-established in many markets.
In UEMOA, financial inclusion rates surged from 56% to 71% between 2018 and 2022, primarily fueled by digital financial services and mobile money.
Merchant payments perfectly illustrate this dynamic. Studies indicate their volume increased by over 40% in 2025, making this one of the ecosystem’s most vibrant segments. This progression reflects a deeper reality: mobile money is steadily becoming an everyday tool for commerce. We observe this across digital services, internet subscriptions, transportation, education, retail, and numerous other sectors. Cross-border payments will also continue to expand as African businesses increasingly operate across multiple markets. Mobile money is no longer a niche product; it has transformed into an essential infrastructure for African commerce.
The mutual recognition agreement for licenses between Ghana and Rwanda was seen as a significant development for African cross-border payments. What does it reveal, in your opinion, about the evolution of regulatory cooperation among African jurisdictions? Is this a precedent that can be widely replicated, or an advancement still highly specific to certain conditions?
I believe it reflects a fundamental trend that is becoming increasingly apparent across the continent. African regulators acknowledge that trade, investment, and the digital economy are becoming more integrated, and that regulatory cooperation can bolster economic growth while maintaining necessary safeguards. The Ghana-Rwanda agreement is one such example. The harmonized framework within UEMOA is another. While the approaches differ, they convey the same reality: economic activity now extends far beyond national borders. There likely won’t be a single, universally applicable model, but the growing willingness to collaborate, share experiences, and construct common frameworks represents a very positive evolution for African trade and investment. Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to support the expansion of cross-border payments.
Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to support the expansion of cross-border payments.
Many stakeholders envision a future fluid and interoperable African payment network. What, in your view, is the realistic path toward achieving this goal? Which prerequisites must be met as a priority?
The encouraging aspect is that the primary foundations are already in place. Mobile money adoption is robust. Financial institutions continue to invest in digital infrastructures. Initiatives like PAPSS, PI-SPI, and various regional interoperability programs demonstrate a shared ambition to strengthen connectivity. The next phase hinges on increased collaboration among operators, banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators. The objective shouldn’t solely be to accelerate payments.
The objective must be to foster trade, exchanges, and economic participation across the entire continent.
When businesses can more easily serve customers in multiple countries, when consumers have more options, and when financial institutions access a larger regional market, the entire ecosystem benefits. However, technology alone will not suffice. Issues related to currency management, compliance, fraud prevention, and the governance of payment networks will also need to be addressed.
What role can infrastructure companies like PawaPay play in supporting the growth of a regional hub such as Côte d’Ivoire? Where can you create the most value?
Our role is to alleviate friction. Whenever a business seeks to expand into multiple African markets, it encounters significant technical, regulatory, and operational complexities. An infrastructure provider like PawaPay simplifies this expansion process.
We assist businesses, banks, and fintechs in rapidly accessing multiple markets via a single platform.
For a regional hub like Côte d’Ivoire, this translates into increased investment, greater innovation, and more businesses capable of operating regionally and even continentally. The greatest value we can generate is to accelerate the flow of funds, services, and economic opportunities across Africa. In our view, the next stage of African financial development will not only be digital; it will also be profoundly pan-African.
