The
Senior Program Officer for Digital Payments Platform at the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation, Dr Oluwaseun Owoeye has said cash use is still high and
remains the dominant payment instrument across Africa. Speaking at a panel discussion 2 of the Ethiopian Digital Payments Conference 2.0, he noted that
despite progress in digital finance, significant opportunities remain to unlock
real economic impact through inclusive digital payment systems.
He
explained that leveraging key ecosystem factors such as intra-African payments
and trade, reducing the risks and costs associated with cash, strengthening
platform economies and partnerships, and expanding interoperable instant
payment systems could help accelerate the transition to digital payments across
the continent. He also underscored the importance of policy levers including
shared national strategies, regulatory harmonization, technology
interoperability, digital economy acceleration, solution sovereignty and the
promotion of “co-opetition” among market players.
The
panel, moderated by Oswell Kahonde, Head of Africa Region at the Better Than
Cash Alliance, featured contributions from Asfaw Alemu, Chief Executive Officer
of Dashen Bank; Dr Ebehijie Momoh, Managing Director and Chief Executive
Officer of AfriGoPay; Aman Semir, Vice President for Technology and Digital
Banking at the Cooperative Bank of Oromia; and Yared Endale, Head of Eastern
Africa at Visa.
Panelists
examined practical digitization cases that expand usage, including merchant
payments as well as government-to-person and person-to-government transactions.
They emphasized the need to deploy the right solutions for the right target
groups to ensure that digital payment systems move beyond access to meaningful
usage.
The
discussion highlighted that users value affordability, ease of use and instant
payment capabilities, and that digital payment strategies must prioritize
adoption and everyday use rather than access alone. Panelists noted that
digital payments achieve economic impact when they are embedded in daily trade,
commerce and service delivery.
The
session ended with commitments from participants to support efforts to scale
adoption and usage of digital payments, particularly among underserved groups,
as part of Ethiopia’s broader drive to unlock the full potential of its digital
economy.
