Six Episodes After: Made in Payments Traces Africa’s Payment Evolution Back to Its Roots

When you look at Africa’s digital payments market today, projected to reach about US $232.60 billion in transaction value by the end of 2025—it almost feels like the continent arrived here overnight.

But the story of how Africa built its payment bridges from cash to cards and eventually to a cashless economy is one of ingenuity, grit, and vision.

Since March 2025, Nkebet Mesele, host of Made in Payments and Founder and CEO of Intreensic, has taken listeners behind the fintech marquee to meet the founders, innovators, and pioneers who built the railways of money across Africa. From Ghana to Nigeria and beyond, these stories ground the numbers in lived experience of real people pushing boundaries to make payments simpler, safer, and more inclusive.

Building Solutions from the Ground Up

In Ghana, Curtis Vanderpuije, co-founder of ExpressPay, recalls the early days when “you couldn’t pay for internet on the internet.” Everything, from mobile airtime to bill payments—had to be done manually. Rather than wait for global solutions, Vanderpuije and his team asked: What do Ghanaians actually need? Where are the pain points?

His approach captures the spirit of Africa’s payments evolution: home-grown, context-driven innovation. Long before APIs and digital rails became mainstream, ExpressPay built the basic infrastructure for mobile wallets, top-ups, and interoperable platforms.

The Birth of Cashless Thinking

Across the border in Nigeria, Deji Oguntonade stands out as a true payments pioneer. With over three decades of experience, driving initiatives like Flash-me-Cash and leading fintech innovation at major banks—he remembers when the idea of digital payments was still radical.

“We knew the only way we could catch up was to do something different,” he says. Nearly 25 years ago, Oguntonade led the team that launched a wallet system where a phone number became an account number. People could buy airtime, send money, and pay merchants directly from their phones, long before “cashless” became a buzzword.

That experiment laid the foundation for what would become Nigeria’s modern payments revolution, one that today powers everything from micro-transactions to large-scale digital banking.

Roke Kuye and Card Payments Evolution

For Ronke Kuye, the story of payments is also the story of persistence. Her career spans the moment Nigeria first issued payment cards, installed ATMs, and deployed POS machines nationwide.

“At the time, Nigeria didn’t have a history of issuing cards,” she recalls. “We started with ValuCard, an electronic purse. We insisted that Nigerians with bank accounts should have a card.”

That insistence transformed habits. Suddenly, people could withdraw cash without a teller and make purchases electronically. It was a cultural shift that gave the system the rails it needed. And as mobile money later took center stage, the card infrastructure remained the backbone, proof that every leap in fintech rests on the rails built before it.

Women Shaping the Future of Payments

On International Women’s Day 2025, Made in Payments released a special edition spotlighting four remarkable leaders shaping Africa’s payments ecosystem — Kemi Okusanya (CEO of Hydrogen), Titilola Shogaolu (Divisional CEO, Interswitch Financial Inclusion Services), Celestina Appeal (Head, Card Business & E-Business Operations, Zenith Bank), and Eduofon Japhet (Managing Director, Habaripay).

Together, their careers highlight how women continue to power the evolution of digital finance across the continent. From driving card issuance and expanding payment networks to leading partnerships that strengthen financial inclusion, each of them has helped reimagine how money moves in Africa.

Africa’s transformation from cash-driven to digitally connected wasn’t accidental. It was powered by five converging forces — mobile penetration, the rise of agent networks, regulatory innovation, problem-solving startups, and new infrastructure that brought millions into the financial fold.

Looking Ahead

Six episodes in, Made in Payments has already captured the stories behind Africa’s payment revolution. But its mission goes beyond nostalgia. Future episodes will explore cross-border transactions and the growing impact of regional integration.

What’s already clear is that Africa didn’t wait for someone else to solve its payment problems, it built its own solutions. And while analysts forecast that the continent’s digital payments economy could hit US $1.5 trillion by 2030, ‘made in payments’ invites us to see the real value lies not just in the numbers, but in the people who made them possible.