Mastercard Convenes Regional Leaders At Africa Edge 2025

Mastercard hosted its first-ever Africa Edge Summit, bringing together leaders from across Africa’s payments ecosystem to discuss how collaboration and innovation can accelerate the continent’s digital transformation.

The forum, led by Mark Elliott, Division President for Africa at Mastercard, focused on strengthening the infrastructure, trust, and interoperability needed to support Africa’s rapidly expanding digital economy—projected to reach USD 1.5 trillion by 2030.

Attendees included senior executives from banks, fintechs, telcos, regulators, and technology firms. Conversations centered on expanding low-cost digital payment acceptance, improving interoperability, and enhancing security at scale to enable a more inclusive economy. With internet penetration expected to grow by 20% annually, participants noted that seamless and secure payment systems will be key to sustaining this growth and unlocking new opportunities for trade and entrepreneurship.

During the event, Mastercard unveiled two innovations shaping the future of digital commerce in Africa. The first-ever Agent Pay transaction in EEMEA was executed live, marking progress toward more autonomous and accessible payment experiences. The company also introduced the Merchant Cloud, a unified platform that integrates payments, AI, and security to help merchants manage omnichannel businesses with greater confidence.

“Africa Edge reflects Mastercard’s long-term commitment to this continent,” said Mark Elliott. “It’s about collaboration and supporting partners across the ecosystem to deliver secure, seamless, and accessible digital experiences that help people and businesses grow.”

A key discussion point was the importance of payment immediacy and liquidity for small businesses. Panelists highlighted how same-day settlements can reduce borrowing needs, improve cash flow, and enable faster reinvestment—citing South Africa’s real-time clearing system as a model for other markets.

Ling Hai, President of APEMEA at Mastercard, emphasized that faster and more accessible payments are critical for small business resilience. He called for stronger collaboration between public and private sectors to ensure innovation benefits everyone, underscoring the need for simple, secure, and interoperable solutions across markets and devices.

The summit also explored how human adaptability will shape leadership in the age of AI. Futurist John Sanei discussed emotional intelligence as a defining skill for navigating digital disruption, while a session with Smile ID addressed the growing risk of synthetic identities and deepfakes. The two companies are working together on AI-driven verification and liveness checks to enhance digital onboarding and combat fraud.

Highlighting regional progress, Shehryar Ali, Senior Vice President and Country Manager for East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, noted that East Africa continues to lead in mobile payments adoption.

“We are building on that foundation by linking ecosystems like Airtel Money, MTN MoMo, Mixx by Yas, and M-PESA to global payment rails,” he said. “With 91% of Kenyan SMEs already using digital payments, the region continues to set the pace for Africa’s $1.5 trillion digital economy opportunity.”

The event concluded with an awards gala celebrating Mastercard’s partners and customers driving innovation and inclusion across Africa’s digital economy.