Mastercard and Moovn Technologies have signed a five-year strategic agreement to expand digital payments across East Africa, combining Mastercard’s global payments network with MoovnPay’s digital wallet to offer card payments, merchant services and cross-border money transfers.
The agreement will enable MoovnPay to offer virtual and physical prepaid Mastercard cards, online and in-app payments, tokenization, peer-to-peer transfers and eligible international remittances. The services will be integrated into Moovn’s mobility, logistics, e-commerce and merchant platforms, targeting drivers, riders, merchants, small businesses and other users.
The partnership comes as digital payments gain ground across Africa. A Mastercard-commissioned report by Genesis Analytics projects that the continent’s digital payments economy will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, supported by growth in digital commerce, cross-border transactions and financial technology.
In Kenya, 95% of small and medium-sized enterprises accept mobile payments, while 80% identify simple and user-friendly payment methods as a key requirement for future growth, according to Mastercard’s 2026 SME Confidence Index.
Africa also had 36 live instant payment systems across 31 countries in 2024, processing more than 64 billion transactions worth nearly $2 trillion, according to AfricaNenda Foundation’s SIIPS 2025 report.
“Payments are increasingly woven into the platforms people use every day to travel, work and trade,” said Shehryar Ali, Mastercard’s senior vice president and country manager for East Africa. He said the partnership would extend access to digital financial services for consumers, drivers, merchants and small businesses.
MoovnPay and Shooga, Moovn’s financial inclusion platform for peer-to-peer payments, fundraising and donations, will form the core of the offering. Users will be able to access Mastercard prepaid cards through a single digital wallet.
The companies also plan to expand Pay Local, which allows participating merchants to accept payments from MoovnPay users, across Kenya and Tanzania. Mastercard Move will support eligible cross-border transfers, enabling users to send and receive money beyond Moovn’s mobility and commerce services.
“Our collaboration with Mastercard is about building more than a payment product,” said Godwin Gabriel, founder and group chief executive of Moovn Technologies. He said the partnership would connect the company’s financial services with its mobility, logistics and commerce platforms to expand access and convenience for consumers and businesses.
The agreement builds on MoovnPay’s selection for Mastercard Start Path’s Emerging Fintech program in September 2025, when it was among 11 fintech companies chosen for the initiative. Since then, the companies have advanced their relationship toward commercial deploymen
