Interoperability, the ability to send money from a wallet on one network to a wallet on another, has been switched on in Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, the WAEMU zone and Rwanda, but only some of those markets publish the one number that shows whether people used it: the share of transfers that cross networks. Where that number exists, it is small in Ghana in 2026 (about 3.5 per cent of mobile money transactions by count) and was about 28 per cent in Tanzania in a 2018 review. Where it does not exist, as in Kenya's public central bank table, connectivity and usage cannot be told apart.
This is a country-by-country reading of public data as of 23 October 2026, not a causal study. The literature that isolates cause is thin, and most figures below are descriptive.
Key takeaways
- Connected is a technical state, used is a behavioural one. Ghana's June 2026 Bank of Ghana data show 33.5 million interoperable transactions out of 954 million mobile money transactions, roughly 3.5 per cent by count and 1.3 per cent by value (our calculation from the same release).
- Price moved usage where it moved at all. Kenya's cross-network transfer fees were set to fall by about 75 per cent at the 2018 launch; Tanzania's off-network share of person-to-person transfers rose from about 5 per cent to about 28 per cent by volume (a CGAP-funded 2018 review).
- The WAEMU zone is the first large test of a mandate plus a free tier. From 2 November 2026, interoperable e-money transfers between persons must run through the BCEAO's PI-SPI platform, with sending free up to 8,000 FCFA a day.
- Registered accounts are the wrong yardstick. Ghana had 84.6 million registered but 26.4 million active mobile money accounts in June 2026.
Five routes to the same word
| Country | How wallets were linked | Date | What public data show | |---|---|---|---| | Tanzania | Bilateral deals between operators, no formal mandate | Sept 2014 to Feb 2016 | Interoperable share of P2P about 5% rising to about 28% (volume) | | Ghana | National rail (GhIPSS Mobile Money Interoperability) | May 2018 | 4.4m transactions in year one; 33.5m in June 2026 | | Kenya | Operator link, then merchant and agent phases under a central bank blueprint | Aug 2018, then 2022 and 2025 | Fee cut of about 75% at launch; no cross-network line in the central bank table | | WAEMU (eight countries) | Central bank platform, voluntary then mandatory | Sept 2025; mandatory 2 Nov 2026 | 175 institutions authorised by early Oct 2026; no usage series yet | | Rwanda | Single national switch (eKash), by central bank directive | Jan 2026 directive; 14 July 2026 | Fee cap and limits published; no volumes in the report we read |
Tanzania: the market route, and the caveat attached to it
Airtel and Tigo signed a bilateral deal in September 2014, Tigo and Zantel followed in December 2014, and Vodacom joined in February 2016. The Bank of Tanzania did not formally mandate interoperability and relied on a market-based solution, according to a 2023 paper in the Review of Network Economics by Grzybowski, Lindlacher and Mothobi.
The usage evidence is a CGAP-funded post-implementation review, published in January 2018: interoperable transfers were about 5 per cent of person-to-person mobile money transactions before Vodacom joined and reached about 28 per cent by volume and 26 per cent by value afterwards. The page says the work was not peer reviewed. It is descriptive, and it cannot separate interoperability from Tanzania's growing market.
The academic paper looks at something narrower, agent-level interoperability, using a 2017 survey of about 1,200 people. In its simulation, letting customers use the nearest agent of any provider changes market shares very little: M-Pesa falls from 23.9 to 23.5 per cent and Ezy Pesa rises from 1.7 to 2.4 per cent. Average distance to an agent drops from 2.92 to 2.28 kilometres, and the benefit concentrates in rural areas. Interoperability may help customers while leaving the competitive map almost untouched.
Ghana: a rail with a volume series
Ghana's Mobile Money Interoperability began in May 2018. GhIPSS figures reported in June 2019 show 96,907 transactions in the first month, 422,275 in December 2018, 502,873 in May 2019 and over 4.4 million in the first year. Before it, cross-network transfers through a token system ran at about 90,000 a month and required an agent.
The latest Bank of Ghana data reported for June 2026 are the rare case of a regulator publishing the cross-network line next to the total. Interoperable transactions: 33.5 million worth GH¢6.2 billion. All mobile money: about 954 million worth GH¢492.9 billion. Registered accounts: 84.6 million, of which 26.4 million were active.
Our reading: a rail that processes tens of millions of transfers a month works, and a 1 to 4 per cent share says most money still moves inside the network where it started, because most people's contacts, agents and merchants are on the same network. The 2019 and 2026 figures come from different reporters (GhIPSS versus the central bank) and may not count identically, so no growth multiple is drawn here.
Kenya: the price cut, and a gap in the data
When M-Pesa and Airtel Money linked person-to-person transfers in August 2018, cross-network charges fell by about 75 per cent: sending between KSh101 and KSh500 dropped from KSh44 to KSh11, and the transfer ceiling doubled from KSh35,000 to KSh70,000. Sending to Airtel then cost the same as sending to another M-Pesa user.
The Central Bank of Kenya's approach, as described by Business Daily in 2025, has three phases: person-to-person transfers, merchant payments, and agent interoperability. Safaricom opened its channels to rival networks' payments in April 2022. In February 2025 Airtel's managing director said Airtel tills and paybills would open to M-Pesa users that quarter, which is a plan reported in that article, not a confirmed completion.
Airtel Money's market share rose from 2.8 to 6.6 per cent in the 12 months to June 2024 and was 7.6 per cent in September 2024, according to Communications Authority data in the same report. That is before merchant interoperability was completed, so the share gain cannot be assigned to it.
The central bank's monthly mobile payments table lists registered accounts (47.7 million in December 2018, 89.5 million in December 2025), active agents and agent cash-in and cash-out volume and value. On the page we opened there is no column for cross-network person-to-person transfers. That is the missing measurement.
WAEMU: from optional to mandatory
The BCEAO launched PI-SPI, its interbank instant payment platform, on 30 September 2025. Connection was voluntary and deadlines slipped: the BCEAO extended them to 30 September 2026 for banks, e-money and payment institutions and 30 June 2027 for microfinance institutions, noting that 80 participants were connected on 24 June 2026.
Then the rules tightened. Reporting on a BCEAO communique of 2 October 2026 says that from 2 November 2026 interoperable e-money transfers between persons must go through PI-SPI. Domestic sending is free up to 8,000 FCFA per user per participant per day, with a fee of up to 0.8 per cent (before tax) above that, and receiving is free. Cross-border transfers inside the zone follow the same terms from 1 June 2027. Financial Afrik reports 175 authorised institutions, up from 104 two months earlier, and that the free threshold covers 75 per cent of e-money transactions in the zone. The 75 per cent figure comes from the reported communique, not an independent dataset.
No usage series for PI-SPI was in the sources we opened. The experiment is real and recent. The result is not in.
Rwanda: one switch
The National Bank of Rwanda issued a directive in January 2026 to consolidate interoperable retail payments on one platform, and since 14 July 2026 transfers between banks and electronic money issuers run through eKash. Institutions may charge up to RWF20 (about US$0.014) per transaction; the limit is RWF10 million per transaction. The report gives no volumes. Three months in, there is no data to judge.
What to measure
The strongest argument against measuring usage at all is that interoperability can be a competition or resilience policy, valued even if few transfers cross networks. That is fair. But if the aim is usage, four numbers answer it:
- Cross-network share of person-to-person transfers, by count and by value, monthly.
- The price gap between sending on-network and off-network.
- Active, not registered, accounts, and the share that sent a cross-network transfer in 90 days.
- Merchant and agent acceptance across networks, since the person-to-person link alone leaves shops and cash-out outside it.
A 2024 GSMA case study of Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania looked at how adoption and usage evolved after different solutions took effect, and notes that interoperability now exists in around half of the 100 countries with at least one mobile money service. Whether it was the cause of any change remains a design question for the researchers, not a settled finding.
Buyer guidance
- If you build on wallets: ask which networks your payout or collection actually reaches, whether that is person-to-person only or includes merchants, and what the all-in fee is cross-network.
- If you assess a market: ask the regulator or operator for the cross-network share and the active-account count before using registered accounts as a market-size input.
- If you operate in the WAEMU zone: check your institution's status with the BCEAO before 2 November 2026, and plan pricing around the 8,000 FCFA free tier.
- If you invest: treat a rail launch as the start of an adoption curve to be measured, not as a growth event.
- Shortlisting: the fintech category, country pages such as Ghana and Kenya help find payment companies by market. Confirm licences and network coverage with the company.
Frequently asked questions
Does mobile money interoperability increase usage? Sometimes, but the evidence is mostly descriptive. Tanzania's off-network share of person-to-person transfers rose sharply after 2016, while an academic simulation found agent-level interoperability barely changed operator market shares.
What share of Ghana's mobile money transactions are interoperable? About 3.5 per cent by count and 1.3 per cent by value in June 2026, based on Bank of Ghana data reported by GNA (our calculation).
What is PI-SPI? The BCEAO's instant payment platform for the eight WAEMU countries, launched 30 September 2025. From 2 November 2026 interoperable e-money transfers between persons must use it, as reported from a BCEAO communique of 2 October 2026.
Is mobile money interoperability the same as PAPSS? No. Interoperability here means links between wallets and banks inside a country or monetary union. PAPSS connects countries.
Sources
- Grzybowski, Lindlacher and Mothobi, Interoperability Between Mobile Money Agents and Choice of Network Operators: The Case of Tanzania, Review of Network Economics, 2023.
- CGAP, Tanzania Interoperability Post-Implementation Review, January 2018.
- Ghanaian Times, Mobile money interoperability records over 4.4m transactions in first year, 14 June 2019.
- Ghana News Agency, Mobile money transactions hit GHS492.9bn in June, 28 July 2026.
- Kenyans.co.ke, Safaricom, Airtel announce new mobile money fees, 21 August 2018.
- Business Daily Africa, Airtel to open its cash tills, paybills to M-Pesa users, 7 February 2025.
- Central Bank of Kenya, Mobile payments, monthly data, accessed 23 October 2026.
- BCEAO, Prolongation du delai de connexion a PI-SPI, June 2026.
- Droit Medias Finance, La BCEAO rend PI-SPI obligatoire, October 2026.
- Financial Afrik, La BCEAO rend PI-SPI obligatoire, revoit ses tarifs, 4 October 2026.
- ITWeb Africa, Rwanda migrates retail payments to eKash, July 2026.
- GSMA, The impact of mobile money interoperability on financial inclusion, January 2024.