Across Africa, access is widening but gaps remain. Mobile money and instant payment rails continue to scale, yet distance to service points, liquidity constraints, and rising digital risks still hold back formal usage especially outside cities. The strategic question for banks is the following – will branch-centric distribution keep pace or will everyday payments continue shifting to players that meet customers at the last mile? The solution is clear and already proven at scale.
Agent banking delivers regulated digital banking services (onboarding, loans, microcredits, card issuance and more) via trusted merchants and agents and provides modern acceptance.
“Across Africa’s underserved markets, the fastest way to expand access isn’t more branches but activating secure, interoperable acceptance at every kiosk and market stall.” — Craig Albertson, Regional Director, Sub-Sahara, BPC SmartVista
How financially inclusive the Africa is now
Southern Africa’s inclusion is high yet modernisation and access to payment services is uneven. In South Africa 98% of adults are formally onboarding into digital, yet many still “cash out” quickly after receiving funds, so digital usage remains uneven outside cities, despite the recent launch of retail real-time scheme. Malawi shows fast gains, with formal inclusion at 74% (2023) on the back of mobile money, but rural access gaps persist, meanwhile Lesotho’s LeSwitch went live in 2024 to interconnect cards, POS, ATMs and mobile payments another step toward 24/7 retail interoperability. Namibia has advanced the push with the Payment System Management Act 2023 and 2024 directives, and continues upgrading NamPay and EFT arrangements. The market in general is still considered heavily underserved, mostly due to legacy constraints and low accessibility to certain areas. In this environment, only modern, API-first compliant platforms, integrated to national switches, providing digital tools for deploying agents and merchants network fast and offering quick digital onboarding, eKYC, modern payment acceptance, can offer the next step for enabling future-ready branchless banking in Africa and push the financial inclusion further.
Despite the progressive steps the execution by traditional banks remains patchy, especially at the end of the agents outlets, where low-cost acceptance matters most.
That’s why the platform question is now decisive for most African traditional banks. Agent banking only works and scales when banks can expose real-time services through APIs. Modern, cloud-ready platforms can give institutions the agility, flexibility, and fraud controls for agents need, while turning everyday merchants into branchless points of access for deposits, bill pay, and digital wallets.
Five bank-level benefits. What the market shows now
Across the African markets, banks attempt to partner with retail agents to deliver services where branches are rare. Institutions that introduce agent banking see faster customer acquisition, lower cost-to-serve, and sharper transaction visibility. Here are the immediate, bank-level benefits.
- New customer segments to reach: Agents onboard hard-to-reach users with e-KYC and instant account issuance.
- Lower cost-to-serve: Shared infrastructure with retailers reduces expenses versus branches.
- Financial inclusion push: Dense access points push cashless payments, boost stickiness and loyalty to the bank brand
- Risk & compliance control: Centralized agent management with KYC, monitoring, and limits.
- Data-driven cross-sell: Local transaction flows for targeted credit, savings, and insurance offers.
How does this look like in practice?
For banks. Take Kenya for instance. Kenyan banks operated over 80 000 agents, processing over 140 million transactions worth KSh 1.65 trillion through them; Equity Bank, KCB, and Co-operative Bank together contracted over 90% of agents, which shows that a strong retail network becomes an extension of the bank as reported by Central Bank. Turning to Nigeria we see as Efina reports formal inclusion rose and highlights agents’ role in extending access—barriers like irregular income and distance remain salient, underscoring why local touchpoints matter. Looking further into African countries, Ethiopia, Ethswitch modernised its whole network, establishing wide digitial payment ecosystem, with all member banks now being able to expand its agent and merchant networks and offer QR-payments acceptances for consumers.
For agents and merchants. Agents gain footfall, commissions, and faster settlement into bank accounts or wallets. Merchants that enable card, SoftPOS, and QR cut cash-handling risk, reconcile faster, and can qualify for working capital based on verifiable sales; national QR schemes (e.g., GhQR, NQR) let one sticker accept from many banks, wallets, and cards.
For consumers. People transact closer to home at predictable fees/hours, get instant receipts, and gradually move from cash into savings, bill pay, and credit—building trust through consistent, daily service.
Agent Banking 2.0: why it matters—and why AI is the step beyond
By turning trusted local outlets into regulated service points, banks acquire customers at a fraction of branch cost, drive cashless agenda, and see real transaction flows that power deposits, credit, and cross-sell. Yet the model also exposes banks to the realities of the street such as cash-handling risk, and fraudsters that shift faster than manual controls can keep up. With fraud pressure still significant across many African markets, the next competitive step is clear: layer AI-powered controls and operations on top of the agent network.
“Agent Banking 2.0 is not a kiosk with a logo; it’s a compliant, API-first AI-driven retail network delivering the same bank-grade experience you expect in-app, just closer to where people live and trade.” — Craig Albertson, BPC SmartVista
That’s what Agent Banking 2.0 is. AI is embedded into the day-to-day of the network. Predictive cash and inventory models balance float so agents don’t turn customers away or run out of stock; price advances and same-day settlements; smart routing and fee design cut the bank’s cost-to-serve while keeping top agents loyal; and ML-based behavioral profiling and analytics spots subtle anomalies for instance sign-on fee abuse, suspicious reversals, and device or location drift, before they really happen. The agent point becomes both a sales point and a risk-aware service hub, not just a cash counter of the bank in the middle of nowhere.
“In Africa, costs for merchants and agents decide the game. Banks that deliver the lowest-cost, most digital services will win the race and unlock the vast, still-untapped customer base. BPC’s SmartVista Agent Banking 2.0 is just about that. We have a vast expertise of African market to understand the rules of play and provide our customers only secure, future-proven solutions, that fit their business needs and growth” — Craig Albertson, BPC SmartVista
Adopting modern agent banking
Many banks see the distribution gaps and cash-heavy journeys, but the first step can be unclear. Modernising connectivity with real-time, open APIs helps to enable instant onboarding for merchants and integration of third party services. Introduction of the modern acquiring and merchant management layer enables e-KYC, merchant and agent portals and apps for establishing the network. Lastly, one should enhance the acceptance and agent/merchant ecosystem with modern payment acceptance and digital tools to provide customers familiar, easy and secure payment methods and digital features like they are visiting the branch.
The fourth, essential step is choosing the right partner. Banks that try DIY experience speed reduction in time-to-market and compliance certification issues; traditional banks should look for a provider with a proven modular platform and solutions of agent-banking and merchant acquiring, real-time integrations to card management, mobile money and instant payments. BPC’s SmartVista fits this profile: an API-first, microservices fully compliant platform with modules for agent onboarding and lifecycle management, merchant management & acquiring, SoftPOS/mPOS, QR acceptance, disputes, and analytics secured by AI-powered fraud Management for scalable, omnichannel protection.
Don’t miss the inclusion window
Mobile money ecosystems keep expanding. Tens of millions of registered and active agents are now shaping everyday financial behavior across Sub-Saharan Africa. Traditional banks that modernize their operating model and move decisively can still define the next chapter of financial inclusion, and their daily relevance on the African payments market. Its time to decide – will you lead the financial inclusion by leveraging agents at your advantage, or watch others earn the trust of your future customers?
