Ismaël Kouassi, director for PawaPay in Côte d’Ivoire: “We are a facilitator, enabling businesses to connect with Africa’s mobile money economy.”

Ismaël Kouassi, the Côte d’Ivoire Director for PawaPay, a technology fintech specializing in African mobile money solutions, explains that the company positions itself as a technological enabler. PawaPay allows businesses, banks, and SMEs to access multiple payment ecosystems through a single integration. He emphasizes that their core function is to streamline payments, disbursements, transaction monitoring, and financial flow management.

According to Kouassi, Côte d’Ivoire and the entire UEMOA region are currently among Africa’s most dynamic areas for digital payments. Driven by robust mobile money adoption, modern infrastructure like the BCEAO’s interoperable PI-SPI platform, and a rapidly evolving financial landscape, the region is emerging as a significant hub for fintech players. Ismaël Kouassi also believes that the synergy between traditional banking and mobile money will be a primary growth engine for financial services in the coming years, particularly benefiting SMEs. These businesses will gain access to a wider array of financial services through enhanced integration of digital flows. In this context, PawaPay is committed to continuously lowering technical and operational barriers, thereby accelerating exchanges, investments, and economic integration across the continent.

You describe PawaPay as a payment infrastructure company offering a unique integration, a unified dashboard, and consolidated treasury across approximately twenty African countries. What exactly does this infrastructure role encompass? Where do your responsibilities end, and where do those of mobile money operators, banks, payment processors, or e-wallet issuers begin?

The simplest way to understand PawaPay is to view our company as a facilitator that connects businesses to Africa’s vibrant mobile money economy. Today, mobile money stands as one of the continent’s most crucial financial infrastructures. Data from the GSMA indicates that over $2 trillion transacted through mobile money services globally in 2025, signifying a doubling of transaction value in just four years. This demonstrates that we are no longer discussing an emerging payment method, but an essential component of African commerce.

Our role is to grant businesses access to this ecosystem via a singular integration.

This could mean enabling a money transfer company to send funds to mobile wallets, assisting an internet service provider in collecting subscriptions, supporting an urban mobility platform in paying its drivers, or allowing digital businesses to serve customers across multiple African markets. We provide the technological layer that orchestrates payments, disbursements, transaction tracking, flow management, and reconciliation. Mobile money operators retain responsibility for customer accounts and the issuance of electronic money. Banks handle core banking services and fund custody. Regulators ensure market integrity and oversight. While mobile money serves as a key infrastructure powering African commerce, our mission is to make it easily accessible to businesses across various markets.

PawaPay currently operates in 20 African markets. What guided the selection of your initial target markets, and what criteria steer your expansion today?

From the outset, we focused on markets where mobile money already played a significant role in daily economic activity. Africa has developed some of the world’s most successful digital payment ecosystems, and we aimed to be present where businesses were actively seeking to connect with their customers via mobile money. Even today, three primary factors guide our growth. First is client demand. We closely monitor the markets where our clients are expanding and wish to reach new consumers. Companies such as Bolt, Yango, LemFi, or GiveDirectly operate across several countries, and their requirements naturally influence our priorities. The second factor is the robustness of the local payments ecosystem.

We prioritize markets where mobile money, digital commerce, and financial services are increasingly integral to the economy.

Finally, we place particular importance on the potential for long-term partnerships. Infrastructures are built over many years. Trust-based relationships with operators, financial institutions, and ecosystem players are essential. The objective is not 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 touted as a future regional hub for fintech and finance. What makes this area particularly attractive for a pan-African payment infrastructure? What elements truly differentiate it?

I would even assert that UEMOA is already one of Africa’s most important 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 the leading economy in UEMOA, a major 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 illustration. By April 2026, over 80 institutions were already connected to it, including banks, electronic money institutions, and microfinance institutions. For businesses and financial institutions alike, the quality of payment infrastructure directly determines their capacity to participate in economic activity. For a pan-African infrastructure like PawaPay, this represents a significant advantage. A regulatory decision or a partnership developed in Côte d’Ivoire can potentially impact several countries in the region. The depth of the banking sector, strong mobile money adoption, entrepreneurial dynamism, and Abidjan’s geographical position as a regional economic center also contribute to its distinctiveness.

When a Francophone African bank collaborates with a payment infrastructure like PawaPay, what tangible benefits does it observe beyond mere technical access to mobile payments? How can this influence customer acquisition, service cost, liquidity management, compliance, fraud prevention, or the offerings for SMEs?

The first point to emphasize is that banks and payment infrastructures are complementary. Banks remain central to settlement, liquidity management, compliance, client relationships, and broader financial services. This fundamental role does not change. What is evolving, however, is the increasing prominence of mobile money in the daily economy.

According to the GSMA, 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 is not “bank versus mobile money,” but rather “bank and mobile money.” An infrastructure like PawaPay allows banks to access multiple payment ecosystems through a single connection, which enhances visibility into financial flows, simplifies treasury management, and expands their capacity to serve their clients. This is particularly relevant for SMEs. Many of these businesses already collect payments via mobile money. Banks that can integrate these flows into their service offerings can provide greater value to these growing enterprises.

How do you foresee the evolution of the mobile money ecosystem over the next 5 years? Will the growth drivers primarily be merchant payments, mass disbursements, government payments, e-commerce, B2B, savings-credit, or cross-border transactions?

One of the most interesting phenomena today is that growth is simultaneously originating from several segments. Consumer adoption is already well-established in many markets.

In UEMOA, financial inclusion rates rose from 56% to 71% between 2018 and 2022, primarily driven by digital financial services and mobile money.

Merchant payments perfectly illustrate this dynamic. Studies indicate that their volume increased by over 40% in 2025, making this segment one of the most dynamic in the ecosystem. This evolution reflects a deeper reality: mobile money is progressively 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 operate in multiple markets. Mobile money is no longer a niche product; it has become an essential infrastructure for African commerce.

The mutual recognition agreement for licenses between Ghana and Rwanda was perceived as a significant signal for African cross-border payments. What, in your opinion, does it reveal about the evolution of regulatory cooperation among African jurisdictions? Is this a precedent that can be replicated on a large scale, or is it still an advance highly specific to certain conditions?

I believe it reflects a fundamental trend that is becoming increasingly visible across the continent. African regulators acknowledge that commerce, investment, and the digital economy are becoming more integrated, and that regulatory cooperation can support economic growth while maintaining necessary safeguards. The Ghana-Rwanda agreement is one example. The harmonized framework of UEMOA is another. While the approaches differ, they convey the same reality: economic activity now extends significantly beyond national borders. There likely won’t be a single, universally applicable model, but the growing willingness to collaborate, share experiences, and build common frameworks represents a very positive development for African trade and investment. Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to foster the growth of cross-border payments.

Ultimately, Africa will require more mechanisms for mutual recognition and regulatory harmonization to foster the growth of cross-border payments.  

Many stakeholders envision a future fluid and interoperable African payment network. What, in your view, is the realistic trajectory toward achieving this goal? What prerequisites must be met as a priority?

The encouraging aspect is that the primary foundations already exist. Mobile money adoption is strong. Financial institutions continue to invest in digital infrastructure. Initiatives like PAPSS, PI-SPI, and several regional interoperability programs demonstrate a shared ambition to enhance connectivity. The next stage hinges on increased collaboration among operators, banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators. The objective must not solely be to accelerate payments.

The objective must be to support commerce, trade, and economic participation across the continent.

When businesses can more easily serve clients in multiple countries, when consumers have more options, and when financial institutions access a broader 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 reduce friction. Whenever a business seeks to expand into multiple African markets, it encounters significant technical, regulatory, and operational complexity. An infrastructure provider like PawaPay simplifies this expansion.

We assist businesses, banks, and fintechs in quickly accessing several markets through 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 create is accelerating the circulation of funds, services, and economic opportunities throughout Africa. In our view, the next phase of African financial development will not only be digital; it will also be profoundly pan-African.