EU steps back, Africa is evolving as new top tier market

While European markets age and drown in regulation, Africa is undergoing a digital transformation that catches attention of global fintech players. Visa, PayPal, and other companies are already establishing a strong presence in the region, investing money, and creating new projects. Why is this happening?

Well, what seemed unlikely just a decade ago — mass adoption of digital payments, the rise of mobile internet, and the emergence of a developed fintech ecosystem — is now a reality on a continent with a population of 1.5 billion people. What matters here is not just the quantity, but the quality of the population, which is predominantly young. The demographic factor has played a key role in the development of fintech, and soon, local mobile payment services will have to compete for customer attention with already established industry giants.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at the African market and its main features.

Demographics and the Fintech Revolution

As we’ve already noted, Africa is the youngest continent on the planet, with an average population age of around 20 years (in some countries, it’s even as low as 18). By 2030, it will be home to 40% of the world’s youth. This creates almost unique conditions: a generation that is growing up with mobile technologies and digital services as basic infrastructure. While these services may not be as developed as in the Western world, demand drives supply, and more and more (including Western) businesses are turning their attention to Africa, shaping the audience.

The region’s fintech sector is already showing impressive growth rates. According to the Worldpay Global Payments Report 2024, over the past decade, the Middle East and Africa have seen significant improvements in financial accessibility. More than 500 million active accounts in mobile money apps process over $830 billion in transactions annually. In 2024, over $1 trillion passed through African mobile platforms. These figures are just the beginning of the continent’s overall potential.

M-Pesa in Kenya and MTN MoMo in South Africa have evolved from simple payment services into comprehensive financial ecosystems, offering loans, investments, insurance, and payment solutions for businesses. This transformation was driven by their initial position as pioneers in financial services and the logical need for broader services among the population.

User Payment Behavior in Africa

African users are focused on mobile technologies, as they became the first accessible payment method, bypassing traditional banking systems. Access to the latter has long been limited, the level of development of these systems is low, and the level of trust in banks among the population is even lower. All of this has led users to adopt simple and accessible services that can handle daily purchases and small savings. Worldpay data also shows that in Nigeria, cash was still the leading payment method at points of sale in 2023, but forecasts indicate a significant decline by 2027. Digital wallets in the country are rapidly gaining popularity: A2A payments have become the leading payment method.

In South Africa, for example, as one of the largest markets in the region, e-commerce industry reached $9 billion in 2024, with one-third of that coming from mobile devices. Mobile commerce in Nigeria shows even stronger growth, with online purchases via mobile devices expected to more than double.

Electronic wallets are undoubtedly the dominant payment method in Africa, as a market without an established legacy of card payments. This fundamentally distinguishes the region from North America and Europe, where consumers remain loyal to cards despite their higher cost and relative inconvenience.

Buy Now, Pay Later can also be called a promising payment method that is penetrating through mobile payment apps. These apps have become the foundation for all other platforms, and today, integration with major wallets is a key success factor in Africa. To get our assistance in African payment methods integration, email us or reach out on Telegram.

Gaming Industry: What Are the Prospects for iGaming?

Gaming industry, of course, has not bypassed Africa and is already valued at over $6 billion, with a projected growth to $11 billion by 2032. Governments are trying to establish regulatory frameworks due to the influx of offshore setups, but resistance is still not very serious. If we look at the main jurisdictions, there is a clear picture of attempts at regulation, but not all of them are successful or as comprehensive as the industry requires. For now, there are still many gaps and gray areas.

Nigeria, for example, has been structuring its licensing system since January 2025, introducing a 15% tax on winnings for both residents and non-residents, as well as a 15% tax on gambling services. The National Lottery Regulatory Commission actively monitors compliance with the rules and blocks illegal operators. At the same time, the new Remote Operator Permit for foreign companies requires integration with the Sentinel system for AML and KYC.

South Africa has legalized sports betting at the provincial level with relatively accessible licenses, although online casinos remain prohibited. The online betting market continues to grow, and there is interest from the audience, which has to turn to international operators.

Tanzania and Uganda are in a transitional phase: online gambling is not formally regulated, but authorities issue licenses for land-based operations, which de facto also cover online activities. The African Gaming Regulatory Association is working on unifying licensing and tax policies to implement them by 2026.

It’s also important to consider that the region is associated with a high risk of fraud. From 2022 to 2024, cases of identity fraud increased by 176%, and nearly 6% of all verifications in Nigeria are marked as suspicious. However, the availability of payment methods for various businesses can still be considered high. Payment acceptance costs are significantly lower than in the European market, and the audience is much larger. Despite local nuances that require study, investments can return quite fast.

To conclude, Africa is no longer a market of the future as the future has arrived already. Now it’s an obvious market with an established mobile infrastructure, a growing digital economy, and an actively forming regulatory landscape (which may still change, but nothing is static). Success here requires localization of platforms, an understanding of regional payment preferences, and readiness to work with evolving regulatory requirements. Companies that enter these countries now will gain access to one of the world’s most dynamically growing economies and can establish themselves before all the latecomers rush to conquer Africa at the last minute.