Mastercard and Moovn Sign Five-Year Deal to Expand Digital Payments in East Africa

Mastercard and Moovn Technologies have entered a five-year strategic agreement to broaden digital payment services across East Africa.

The pact will combine Mastercard’s global payments network with MoovnPay’s digital wallet, enabling MoovnPay to issue both virtual and physical prepaid Mastercard cards and to support online and in-app payments.

It will also add peer-to-peer transfers, eligible cross-border remittances, tokenisation of card data and the use of Mastercard Payment Gateway Services for online merchant acceptance.

The partners plan to roll out Pay Local, a service that lets merchants accept payments from MoovnPay users, initially in Kenya and Tanzania.

MoovnPay and Shooga, Moovn’s platform for peer-to-peer payments, fundraising and donations, will form the core of the integrated offering, giving users access to Mastercard prepaid cards through a single wallet and enabling cross-border transfers via Mastercard Move.

Shehryar Ali, senior vice-president and country manager for East Africa at Mastercard, said the collaboration will open new pathways into the digital economy for consumers, drivers, merchants and small businesses across the region.

Godwin Gabriel, founder and group chief executive of Moovn Technologies, described the partnership as building more than a payment product, linking MoovnPay, Shooga and its mobility, logistics and commerce platforms to trusted global payment capabilities.

A Mastercard-commissioned report by Genesis Analytics projects that Africa’s digital payments economy could reach US$1.5 trillion by 2030.

Mastercard’s 2026 SME Confidence Index for Kenya found that 95 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises accept mobile payments and that 80 per cent view simple, user-friendly payment methods as essential for future growth.

AfricaNenda Foundation’s SIIPS 2025 report noted 36 live instant payment systems operating in 31 African countries in 2024, processing more than 64 billion transactions worth nearly US$2 trillion.

MoovnPay was selected for Mastercard’s Start Path Emerging Fintech programme in September 2025 and has since moved to commercial integration, including the launch of Mastercard Payment Gateway Services in Kenya.

The next phase of the partnership will see the launch of Shooga’s prepaid Mastercard portfolio, further expansion of Pay Local in Kenya and Tanzania, and continued development of tokenisation, MPGS and wallet services, though a detailed rollout schedule has not been disclosed.