Africa’s urban boom: Can development keep up?

Oyebanke Abejirin of the UN Economic Commission for Africa is examining the difficulties associated with developing sustainable cities as the urban population in Africa increases, according to Moneyweb.

A report titled Breaking the Cash Equilibrium: Unlocking Africa’s Digital Financial Future, produced by Affinity Africa in collaboration with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and Yale University’s International Leadership Center, states that Africa's reliance on cash results in billions of dollars in lost economic opportunities, restricted credit access, and higher transfer costs annually.

Africa accounts for 74% of global mobile money transaction volume, processing over $1.1 trillion across 1.1 billion accounts in 2024, yet Africa Business reports that more than 90% of this is withdrawn as cash instead of being used digitally for goods and services.

The report suggests that cash dependency is an issue of incentives rather than technology. While mobile money infrastructure has extended services to hundreds of millions of people, street vendors and informal merchants face transaction fees of 1% to 3% and digital literacy requirements when accepting digital payments, whereas physical cash settles instantly at no cost.

Brief written by urgent.news from Moneyweb, Africa Business — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.