The Africa Prosperity Network (APN) welcomes the strong commitments on digital transformation and artificial intelligence expressed at the Africa Forward Summit.
We commend the emphasis on Africa’s digital future, inclusive innovation, and alignment with African Union frameworks and priorities.
However, implementation remains the real challenge. African leaders have long acknowledged the importance of the digital economy to the continent’s prosperity. What is now required is urgent and coordinated action.
APN therefore calls for immediate focus on two critical priorities.
First is the accelerated implementation of the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol. While the Summit rightly recognised the importance of digital trade, many African countries are yet to operationalise the protocol adopted in 2024. APN urges African governments and relevant stakeholders to develop practical implementation roadmaps, including pilot projects for cross-border e-commerce, digital identity recognition, and harmonised data governance.
Second, mobile money interoperability across Africa must become an urgent continental priority. Mobile money remains Africa’s most successful digital finance innovation, yet fragmented payment systems continue to limit cross-border trade, remittances, SME growth and the high-level investor incentive required for enabling more efficient movement of people, goods and services across our borders.
The growth in the sector is phenomenal, and our leaders cannot fail to take notice. Global mobile money transactions exceeded US$2 trillion in 2025, doubling from the first trillion in just four years. Africa accounted for approximately 66% of global mobile money transaction value, processing an estimated US$1.43 trillion in transactions in 2025 alone. Around 1.2 billion mobile money accounts are now registered across the continent, representing more than half of all global accounts.
This demonstrates that Africa already possesses one of the world’s most advanced digital financial ecosystems. Yet Africans still face unnecessary barriers when attempting to send and receive payments seamlessly across borders.
APN therefore calls on African leaders, central banks, regulators, fintech companies and payment platforms to work urgently towards continent-wide mobile money interoperability. Enabling Africans 1.5 billion population to buy, sell and trade freely across borders using their mobile money wallets will significantly boost intra-African trade, investment, logistics, transport, and the broader integration of African markets.
Indeed, one of the fastest ways of making Africa borderless is making Africa digitally borderless. The benefits in improving services, including e-health, e-commerce, and creating jobs and wealth for our fast-growing young populations are immense.
APN stands ready to support dialogue, implementation tracking, and private sector engagement to ensure the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol is implemented with urgency and seriousness. Its success will deliver tangible benefits for African businesses, women, youth, and underserved communities across the continent.
We also call on businesses and the people of Africa to support our campaign by joining the over 120,000 Africans who have signed the petition to speed up economic integration on the continent.
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