Launch of the State of Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (SIIPS) report 2022

Abstract

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the World Bank release the State of Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems in Africa report (SIIPS - Africa). The report builds on extensive consultations with industry leaders and experts in digital financial services as well as MSMEs and consumers across the continent. provides a detailed landscape of Instant Payment Systems (IPS) in Africa and highlights ways in which they can become more inclusive to leave no African behind in the digital era. The SIIPS - Africa report 2022 shows that IPS are growing rapidly, with 29 systems gone live on the continent in the past decade. Despite all the increasing interest in these IPS, only a few are showing signs of potential to reach a state of mature inclusive due to regulatory challenges, lack of data transparency, and high costs for both payment system providers and end-users. Those challenges call for a collaborative effort between public and private stakeholders to ensure open access to shared payment infrastructure, healthy competition and access a range of services that meet consumers’ needs. The report also underlines that IPS need to take into account the lived reality of consumers more deliberately in order to address users’ needs and enable them to access various payment services through multiple channels, and so trigger a more regular usage of digital payments.