Mastercard expanded its acceptance network across Africa by 45% in 2025. What specifically unlocked this scale in Nigeria’s SME and informal merchant segments?
Mastercard’s 45% expansion of its African acceptance network in 2025 was largely driven by a strategic pivot toward low-cost, software-led solutions and deep localized partnerships in Nigeria.
The shows a wide adoption of digital payments where 73% of Nigerian SMEs reported plans to further expand their digital payment capabilities across various channels, a milestone that reflects years of deliberate ecosystem-building. Key enablers included the widespread deployment of Mastercard’s suite of digital payment solution including QR-on-Card technology, which enabled SMEs and gig workers to convert their existing Android smartphones into contactless payment terminals, eliminating the cost-barrier of traditional POS hardware. The initiative complemented this by providing small businesses a rapid, all-in-one digital onboarding experience, including virtual cards and business management tools to move beyond cash operations.
Mastercard has also embedded digital payments directly into the supply chains of Nigeria’s informal merchants in the FMCG sector. Through our collaboration with fintechs we’ve helped digitize SMEs across the FMCG sector manage cash flow and integrate into larger supply chains. This reach was further expanded through program — designed to help later-stage fintech startups scale their businesses by providing access to Mastercard’s technology, expertise, and massive network of partners. In addition, Mastercard’s has accelerated the launch of card programs by Nigerian fintechs, reducing time-to-market and enabling faster service to customers.
Our collaboration with further accelerated this by providing financial literacy and training to millions of small business owners, directly addressing the human-capital side of the adoption challenge.
This multi-layered approach, combining technology access, fintech enablement and institutional collaboration, addressed the primary barriers facing Nigeria’s informal sector: cost and infrastructure complexity. The result is an acceptance landscape that has fundamentally shifted, with digital payments now the operating standard for Nigerian commerce.
The ₦285 trillion milestone signals that digital payments in Nigeria have moved decisively past the adoption phase. They are now the fundamental operating system for Nigerian commerce. The highlights a critical structural transformation in how businesses operate, transact and grow. The scale of these figures suggest businesses are not just using digital tools for customer-facing retail but are increasingly settling B2B supplier invoices and payroll electronically, creating fully digital transaction loops.
The distinction between access and participation is important here. Access means owning a wallet. Participation means using it daily to manage your business. Nigeria’s SMEs are firmly in the participation category. This shift carries significant downstream implications. Digital transaction histories are enabling SMEs to build what we call “bankable profiles” — verifiable financial footprints that banks can use to assess creditworthiness beyond traditional collateral requirements. The for Nigeria found that access to credit remains a priority for over three-quarters of SMEs, with 47% seeking financing to grow and 27% looking to maintain daily operations. Digital payment trails are increasingly the bridge between informal commerce and formal financial services.
The further underscores this momentum. Nigeria’s GDP is projected to grow by 4.0% in 2026, outpacing global growth of 3.1%, supported by resilient consumer demand and digital transformation. MEI data also shows plan to expand their digital payment capabilities and are focused (70%) on providing seamless, user-friendly payment experiences to customers — signaling growing confidence in digital payments infrastructure.
The early impact of QR-on-Card is precisely what the data gap required: a shift from invisibility to verifiable commercial identity. For Nigerian SMEs and gig workers, the primary barrier to formal banking has never been willingness. It has always been a lack of a financial footprint. This is particularly important in a market where 73% of Nigerian SMEs plan to expand their digital payment capabilities, according to the .
addresses this directly. Every transaction creates an automatic, verifiable transaction record. Over time, these records form a real-time revenue profile that banks can use in place of traditional collateral assessments. We are seeing these merchants build “bankable” profiles for the first time, directly leading to better access to working capital, tailored insurance products and formal credit at terms that reflect their actual business scale.
The broader significance is structural. Africa’s digital payments economy is projected to reach , according to a Mastercard-commissioned report by Genesis Analytics. Nigeria, as one of Africa’s largest economies, is central to that trajectory. QR-on-Card is one of the instruments through which that macro-level growth becomes tangible at the micro-merchant level.
Cross-border payments have historically been a significant bottleneck for Nigerian SMEs, plagued by high transaction costs, fragmented systems, and opaque settlement timelines. These barriers often stifle growth and discourage smaller players from entering international markets.
The scale of Nigeria’s cross-border opportunity makes closing this gap a strategic imperative. World Bank data shows that remittance flows into Nigeria reached back in 2024, making Nigeria one of the largest remittance recipient on the continent. This is not simply diaspora capital. For SMEs, these flows represent working capital, supplier financing and consumer purchasing power that flows directly through the digital economy.
, Mastercard’s portfolio of money movement capabilities, directly addresses these friction points by providing a unified, interoperable infrastructure. By connecting financial institutions and fintechs to a single network, that reaches more than 200 countries and territories, supports over 150 currencies, and connects to more than 1.75 billion endpoints globally, Mastercard Move enables Nigerian SMEs to transact with greater speed, transparency and predictability than traditional systems allow.
Mastercard’s to launch Fidelity Send brought near-real-time funds delivery to over 60 countries directly through Fidelity’s branches and digital platforms. In collaboration with Access Bank, Mastercard also launched a unified, secure, and instant cross-border money transfer solution across Africa, allowing for payments to and from bank accounts, mobile wallets, and cash channels, across over 150 countries. These reflect tangibles example of how Mastercard’s cross-border infrastructure reaches Nigerian businesses at the point of need
for Nigeria also highlights a structural shift in trade flows, with African economies deepening integration within the EEMEA region and other emerging markets. As these new corridors develop, Mastercard’s cross-border payment solutions provide the infrastructure that enables Nigerian businesses to move with them, turning regional diversification from a policy ambition into a commercial reality.
Trust is the bedrock of Nigeria’s digital growth. Mastercard approach is to embed security directly into the core payment infrastructure rather than treating it as a secondary layer. Mastercard has been using and investing in artificial intelligence for more than two decades, applying advanced analytics to analyze transaction patterns detect anomalies and strengthen fraud prevention in real time. This “security-by-design” approach protects the entire ecosystem through three primary pillars.
The first is intelligence at scale. , Mastercard’s AI-driven risk solution, analyzes over one trillion data points in real-time, evaluating 40 security criteria in just 125 milliseconds to distinguish genuine transactions from fraudulent ones before they impact a merchant or consumer. Additionally provides a global shield, identifying large-scale attacks and blocking suspicious activity even when an individual institution’s systems are overwhelmed.
Second is the use of to eliminate the exposure of sensitive information. By replacing physical card numbers with unique digital tokens, Mastercard ensures that even in the event of a merchant data breach, the exposed data is useless to hackers.
The third is capacity building. Mastercard ), directly strengthening national data governance capability. Furthermore, our fraud forums with the ), fortifies financial leaders against cyber threats, while Tap on Phone enables small businesses to accept secure, contactless payments directly on smartphones without additional hardware risk.
. These investments have prevented nearly $50 billion in potential fraud losses. As Nigeria’s digital economy expands toward Africa’s projected $1.5 trillion digital payments economy by 2030, that global security architecture becomes an increasingly critical foundation for local growth.
Nigeria’s digital payments momentum is real and accelerating. To convert momentum into long-term economic value, Nigeria must bridge several critical infrastructure gaps.
The first is acceptance depth. While most Nigerian SMEs now accept digital payments, the informal sector remains partially cash-dependent in everyday commerce. Scaling low-cost acceptance infrastructure like Tap on Phone, QR solutions and Payment Link into the last mile is essential, particularly in smaller cities and rural markets where the growth opportunity is largest.
The second is upgrading backend systems to ensure high-speed interoperability and reliability. Frequent downtime erodes trust and pushes users back toward cash.
The third is cross-border integration. As the MEI outlook highlights, Nigeria’s growth is increasingly tied to regional and global trade diversification. Strengthening cross-border payment rails — and ensuring Nigerian businesses can access them affordably — is foundational to that integration.
Beyond these technical layers, true long-term value depends on addressing foundational utility gaps—specifically reliable electricity and universal broadband—alongside a robust cybersecurity framework to mitigate rising fraud.
Additionally, scaling digital identity verification across all demographics is vital to ensure that payment momentum translates into deeper financial inclusion and a resilient, formalized digital economy.
Ultimately, the investments made today will determine the resilience of the economy that Nigeria builds for tomorrow, and Mastercard remains committed to this journey.