Enterprise Payments at Scale: What Good Looks Like

Enterprise Payments at Scale: What Good Looks Like – Fireside chat at Africa Tech Summit Nairobi 2026 with Jamie Steell, Chief Operating Officer at pawaPay and Jessica Hope, CEO at Wimbart.

The fireside chat explored what it really takes to scale mobile money payments reliably across Africa’s fragmented and fast-growing markets. Drawing on pawaPay’s experience as one of the largest mobile money PSPs on the continent, the session unpacked the operational, technical, and regulatory realities of processing billions of transactions across 20 countries. At its core, the conversation emphasized that trust, uptime, deep local knowledge, and regulatory engagement – not just volume – define success in African payments infrastructure.

Key Highlights:

• Scale & Reliability: pawaPay has processed 2.5 billion mobile money transactions across 20 African markets, reporting 100% uptime over the past two years through strong infrastructure, real-time monitoring, and direct integrations with mobile money operators.
• Fragmentation & Complexity: Mobile money differs significantly by country – adoption, trust levels, operator rules, and technical standards vary widely – making edge cases, ambiguous payment statuses, and reconciliation more challenging than sheer volume.
• Trust & Reconciliation: Near real-time reconciliation and transparent payment visibility are critical to building merchant and user trust, especially when dealing with inconsistent data formats and operator constraints.
• Cross-Border Friction & Stablecoins: The biggest cross-border barriers are regulatory and liquidity constraints, not technology. Stablecoins show promise as infrastructure for cross-border settlement, but regulatory clarity remains key.
• Future Growth: With Africa’s young, digitally native population and $1.1 trillion in mobile money transaction volume in 2024, the sector is still early in its growth curve – positioning reliable, “invisible” payments as foundational to the next phase of commerce across the continent.

From keynotes to dynamic panel discussions, the summit explored groundbreaking topics across four flagship tracks: the Africa Money & DeFi Summit, Africa Climate Tech & Investment Summit, Africa Startup Summit, and Africa AI & Digital Summit. Attendees immersed themselves in the latest trends, shared ideas, and discovered cutting-edge innovations that are redefining Africa’s tech landscape.

But it wasn’t just about the talks – networking buzzed with energy, workshops sparked creativity, and exhibitions showcased the region’s tech solutions.

Africa Tech Summit Nairobi 2026 celebrated its 8th edition on February 11th and 12th at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi. Bringing together leading industry players the summit explored the latest trends and insights in technology and business across Africa and beyond.