For years now, the idea of a cashless economy has been a hot topic in fintech circles—something that keeps coming up in conferences, boardrooms, and technology meetups across Africa.
In 2015, at a time when M-Pesa had already become deeply embedded in everyday life in Kenya, and people were sending money, paying bills, and even buying groceries through their phones, I sat in a panel discussion talking about the future being cashless.
It is 2025, and last week, I was a panelist at the Seamless East Africa Summit held in Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Centre to discuss cashless ecosystems as the future of finance.
The conversation must now shift because the future of digital payments is here; it is just that it is not evenly distributed. What we should be talking about more is a cash-lite economy.
A cash-lite economy does not mean getting rid of cash completely, but rather reducing how much physical money people use, while encouraging more digital payments, like mobile money, cards, and online transfers.
It is a gradual shift, an evolution, not an overnight change. The goal now ought to be to provide more payment options for users depending on how they are spending, how much they are spending and where they are, especially for those in rural areas or places with less reliable internet and electricity, and making these options more efficient, safe and accessible.
In 2000, for instance, I used to send cash to my parents in the village through Akamba Bus [which later collapsed], then M-Pesa came seven years later, and mobile money was hailed as the future of payments. But look at the 2024 Finaccess Household Survey, about 79.8 percent of Kenyans still use cash for paying for their daily expenses. Even for medical bill payments, 64.9 percent of Kenyans pay in cash, according to the same survey.
Others still send money using bus or truck drivers as informal couriers, by either handing paper cash directly to drivers or hiding it in parcels, because it is thought to be trusted.
The truth is, each of us perceives the future of money differently, depending on what we use and what works best in our day-to-day life. Whether it is cash, mobile money, bank cards, or digital wallets, people just want the freedom to choose.
At the end of the day, it is not about pushing everyone in one direction; it is about giving people real options and building financial systems where no one is left out, everyone can pay in a way that feels safe, convenient, and accessible to them.
Think of a city dweller in Nairobi. They park their car and pay via mobile money. But the man who helps them park? He will probably want to be paid in cash. If all you have is a card, you are stuck. That is why, when people talk about the future being fully cashless, it does not always hit home for most in Africa.
In Kenya, for instance, there are about 45 million active mobile money wallets, with M-Pesa holding a huge share of that market. In South Africa, there are over 60 million payment cards. Yet, cash is still used in four out of 10 transactions.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, about 90 percent of retail transactions are still cash-based despite the continent having over 800 million mobile money accounts.
This tells us that even though people might be using mobile money and cards more, that does not mean they have abandoned cash. Once we understand the behaviours of consumers, it sets the direction for fintech companies to build the infrastructure—the rails or the tracks—for digital payments.
Technology is the last mile. And the truth is, fintechs are not flying blind. We have data that shows how consumers spend, where they spend, and even what they aspire to buy.
So here is where the future really starts to make sense: we stop building technology just because it is trendy, and we start building based on real consumer behaviour.
That means designing solutions that fit into people’s actual lives; their habits, their pain points, their dreams. It means creating systems that are flexible, inclusive, and rooted in how people are already engaging with money.
Card usage
You have also probably heard, especially in fintech circles, “cards have no future” in a cashless economy. “That cards are dead, or that we are onto mobile wallets and wearables.” The first time I heard about the narrative of cards having no future was in 2014 at a conference in New York, US. Yet today, we have over five billion cards in circulation. Last year in Africa alone, over 500 million cards were manufactured.
Look around at supermarkets, petrol stations, e-commerce checkouts, and cards are very much alive. People are still tapping, swiping, and inserting cards every single day.
Therefore, some of the information we hear, not all of it reflects the reality on the ground. Fintechs need to be careful not to confuse trendy predictions with practical consumer behaviour. Yes, innovation is moving fast. Yes, mobile wallets are rising. But that does not mean cards are anywhere near obsolete. Many Kenyans have more than one card in their pockets: debit, credit, prepaid, etc.
Cybersecurity
Moreover, one of the most important issues which came up at the Seamless Summit is security. How do fintechs ensure that the consumers’ cash is moving safely? Good technology aside, the consumers must trust that the infrastructure is safe enough.
Cybercrime is now a $10 trillion economy, projected to hit that mark by 2025, according to cybersecurity experts. If cybercrime were a country, it would rank as the third-largest economy in the world by GDP, right after the US and China. That is how massive and dangerous it has become.
This is why the emphasis should be on building a cash-lite—not cashless or cashfree—economy. Many people still prefer cash because they trust it.
For fintech companies building and supplying technology—whether it is mobile money platforms, fintech apps, or payment rails, they must not only develop secure payment infrastructure but also earn and sustain consumer trust.
After all, every payment system runs on the rails of trust, and that trust must be built and nurtured continuously, every minute if need be.
The writer is the managing director at MDP Africa, a fintech company.
