Mastercard
Kenya has long been celebrated as the birthplace of mobile money, but the next battle for financial leadership is shifting beyond digital wallets to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and seamless cross-border payments.
As consumers demand faster, safer and more personalised financial services, the country's payments ecosystem is entering a new phase of transformation.
For global payments giant Mastercard, that future will be built less on competition and more on collaboration.
The company argues that partnerships between banks, fintechs, telecom operators and governments will determine how quickly Africa unlocks inclusive digital commerce, expands access to credit and protects consumers from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
In an exclusive interview with The Star, Vice President and Mastercard East Africa head of business development Victor Ndlovu, discusses why AI is becoming the new engine of financial inclusion, how the company is adapting to Kenya's mobile-first economy and what it will take to make digital payments cheaper, more secure and accessible across Africa.
Kenya is widely seen as a global leader in mobile money innovation. How does Mastercard view the evolution from mobile payments to AI-driven financial ecosystems?
Kenya’s leadership in mobile money innovation has helped redefine financial inclusion globally, and we are now seeing the ecosystem evolve beyond digital payments toward more intelligent, AI-driven financial ecosystems.
The next phase of growth will be shaped by technologies that can deliver smarter, more secure and more personalized financial experiences for consumers and businesses.
AI has the potential to strengthen fraud prevention, improve credit accessibility, enhance cybersecurity and help SMEs participate more effectively in the digital economy.
The AI in Africa Whitepaper of 2025 says the African market is projected to grow from $4.51 billion in 2025 to 16.53 billion by 2030, and intelligent, secure payments will help drive that growth.
As fintechs, banks, telcos, and digital asset platforms compete for customers, who do you believe is best positioned to shape Africa’s financial future — and why?
Africa’s financial future will not be shaped by a single player, but by the strength of collaboration across the ecosystem.
Banks, fintechs, telcos and emerging digital asset platforms each bring distinct capabilities to the table, and the greatest progress will come from how effectively those strengths are combined to drive inclusive growth at scale.
The organizations best positioned to shape Africa’s financial future are those focused on building interoperable, secure and inclusive ecosystems rather than operating in silos.
The future of payments on the continent will be defined by partnerships that connect consumers, businesses, governments and financial institutions seamlessly across markets and platforms.
Cross-border payments remain expensive and slow across Africa. What practical steps are needed to make regional digital payments seamless for businesses and consumers?
Creating seamless regional digital payments across Africa requires greater interoperability between financial systems, stronger public-private collaboration and continued investment in modern payments infrastructure.
For instance Mastercard is working with partners such as Equity Bank and Access Bankto bring this to life by enabling businesses and customers to seamlessly send and receive money to and from more than 150 countries using Mastercard Move.
In Kenya, our multi-currency prepaid card with KCB Bank supports 18 hard currencies, giving students, frequent travelers and businesses a cost-effective way to manage international transactions.
How can artificial intelligence improve fraud detection and cybersecurity in Kenya’s rapidly growing digital payments market?
The National KE-CIRT/CC, cyber security report detected over 4.5 billion cyber threat events in a single three-month period (April–June 2025), an 80.7% quarter-on-quarter increase.
As Kenya’s digital payments ecosystem continues to grow, AI is becoming increasingly important in strengthening fraud detection and cybersecurity capabilities.
AI can help financial institutions identify suspicious activity in real time, detect evolving fraud patterns faster, and respond more proactively to cyber threats before they impact consumers or businesses.
As cyber threats become more sophisticated, continued collaboration between payment providers, financial institutions, fintechs and regulators will be critical to ensuring that innovation is matched with strong security, resilience and consumer protection measures.
Kenya has a strong mobile money culture led by platforms like M-Pesa. How is Mastercard adapting its strategy to remain relevant in a market where cards are not always the primary payment tool?
Mastercard recognises that in markets like Kenya, consumers are increasingly choosing payment experiences that are convenient, mobile-first and deeply embedded into their everyday lives.
Our strategy is therefore designed to go beyond cards. We enable a broader range of digital payment experiences that support how people and businesses transact today.
This includes working closely with banks, fintechs, mobile network operators and merchants to enable greater interoperability across the payments ecosystem.
In Kenya, we are working with Safaricom to expand payment acceptance and cross-border remittances for more than 900,000 merchants who use M-PESA.
We launched Africa’s first rollout of QR Pay by Link service in Tanzania, with NMB Bank Plc.
With Diamond Trust Bank (DTB), Mastercard is offering customized payment solutions in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and has launched Kenya’s first tokenization-based passive payment wearables.
Many SMEs in Kenya still operate largely in cash. What will it take to accelerate digital payment adoption among small businesses and informal traders?
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Africa’s economy, and there is a major opportunity to bring more of them into the digital economy.
Kenya alone is home to 7.4 million SMEs that contribute around 40 per cent of GDP and employ nearly 14.9 million people. In East Africa, our work with KCB and NMBhas supported the digitization of more than 200,000 SMEs.
Solutions like Tap on Phone and QR Pay by Link make accepting payments low-cost and simple. The credentials and data these tools generate then help SMEs build a credit profile and access financing.
With solutions like our Business Credit Card with I&M Bank gives SMEs expense-management tools and clearer visibility over company spending. That is how small businesses go digital, grow digital and benefit from the efficiencies of digital commerce.
Digital lending and fintech innovation have expanded financial access, but concerns around debt, fraud, and data privacy are growing. How should the industry balance innovation with consumer protection?
Digital lending and fintech innovation have played an important role in expanding financial access across Africa, particularly for underserved consumers and SMEs.
However, as the ecosystem grows, it is equally important that innovation is supported by strong consumer protection frameworks that promote transparency, responsible lending practices, data privacy and cybersecurity.
Achieving the right balance requires close collaboration between fintechs, financial institutions, regulators and technology partners. Innovation is most impactful when it is both inclusive and trusted.
What role do you see digital assets and blockchain-based payment systems playing in Africa’s future financial infrastructure?
Digital assets and blockchain-based payment systems have the potential to play an important role in Africa’s evolving financial infrastructure, particularly in improving payment efficiency, transparency and cross-border transaction capabilities.
Mastercard is currently collaborating with more than 60 leading crypto wallets and platforms to launch a range of products and services.
We are also working with the NFT market and infrastructure partners to enable simple and safe NFT commerce. Our crypto card program is making it simpler and more secure for consumers to transact across 150+ million acceptance locations.
AI is transforming industries from agriculture to banking. How can financial technology companies ensure that AI-driven innovation does not widen inequality or exclude vulnerable populations?
As AI continues to transform industries across Africa, it is critical that innovation is developed with inclusion and accessibility at its core.
Financial technology companies have a responsibility to ensure that AI-driven solutions do not unintentionally exclude underserved communities, particularly those with limited digital access, thin credit histories or lower levels of financial literacy Mastercard’s Strive program partnered with MESH, a digital community of young informal entrepreneurs under Shujaaz Inc, to pilot and scale access to formal credit.
Looking ahead five years, what major shifts do you expect to see in Kenya’s payment ecosystem, and what role does Mastercard want to play in that transformation?
Over the next three to five years, AI is expected to play an increasingly important role in supporting smarter credit decisioning and advancing financial inclusion by helping lenders assess risk through broader datasets and enabling more consumers and businesses to access financial services.
Crucially, AI will accelerate Africa’s economy and create jobs. It is forecast to generate up to 230 million digital roles across Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030 (Mastercard AI in Africa whitepaper, 2025).
At Mastercard, we have been using AI for the past two decades, especially in cybersecurity, investing around $12.6 billion (Sh1.6 trillion) in cyber resilience since 2019. Today our AI engine protects more than 175 billion transactions from fraud every year, and our Decision Intelligence Pro technology uses generative AI to analyze over a trillion data points in real time, delivering 200 per cent higher fraud detection.
We need proactive systems that bring our secure technology, innovation, expertise and insights to an ecosystem where collaboration between financial institutions, fintechs, telecom operators and other partners is driving meaningful impact and localized success stories across Africa.
As we expand our acceptance network and footprint across the continent, we remain committed to bringing more people and businesses into the digital economy.
