What if Africa's mobile money ecosystem was already doing everything the world now celebrates about stablecoins, 20 years before the conversation even started?
In this episode of the Sound of Accra Podcast, Adrian Daniels sits down with Aaron Markowitz-Scholman, CFO of Pawa Pay, one of Africa's largest B2B mobile money aggregators, recording live from Accra ahead of the 3i Africa Summit.
What you'll learn:
→ How Pawa Pay connects merchants to 1 billion mobile wallets across 20 African countries through a single API
→ Why mobile money is Africa's original stablecoin and how M-PESA predated Venmo by a full decade
→ The Web2 to Web3 transition in African payments, and why Pawa Pay has used stablecoins in its settlement flow for 4 years
→ How one West African client grew digital payment adoption from 40% to 75% — and renewal rates to 90% ( after switching to Pawa Pay)
→ The Ghana-Rwanda FinTech Passport and what it signals for Pan-African regulatory harmonisation
→ Pawa Pay's 2026 roadmap: remittance, banking integration and stablecoin wallet products
→ Why global brands like Bolt ride-hailing rely on Pawa Pay for real-time payment reliability across multiple African markets
Special thanks to our Partners
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Connect with Us
Website: https://thesoundofaccra.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thesoundofaccrapodcast
Social Media: https://linktr.ee/thesoundofaccrapod
Connect with Aaron and Pawa Pay
Website: https://www.pawapay.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronm-s/
📧 Contact
Email: info[at]thesoundofaccra.com
🔗 Connect with Adrian
👥 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielsadrian/
Timestamps
00:00 What is PawaPay?
02:07 Meet Aaron Markowitz-Scholman, CFO of PawaPay
03:18 PawaPay's scale: 1 billion wallets, 50 networks, 20 countries
05:23 Why go all-in on mobile money?
07:10 Real-world use case: Bolt ride-hailing
08:31 Aaron's role as CFO: finance, treasury, legal, tax
11:48 Why physical presence in Africa is non-negotiable
14:50 Approaching 3 billion transactions processed
16:01 Mobile money as Africa's original stablecoin
19:00 Web3, stablecoins & digital assets: evolution not revolution
21:11 The Ghana-Rwanda FinTech Passport
23:54 Client growth stories & the win-win model
27:19 What excites Aaron most about Africa's fintech future
30:07 PawaPay's 2026 roadmap
35:17 Transaction scale: 5 million/month, 500/second at peak
38:22 Outro
📊 Key numbers from this episode:
• Nearly 3 billion total transactions processed
• 5 million transactions per month
• Up to 500 transactions processed per second at peak
• 200+ mobile money wallets and 150+ bank accounts under management
• Direct integrations with 50 mobile networks and banking partners
• Zero downtime incidents throughout 2024–2025
🎙 About the Podcast
The Sound of Accra Podcast was established six years ago by Adrian Daniels in January 2020, on the back of running networking events in Accra and launching a failed online platform for Ghanaian tourists, visitors and business people. The show spotlights Ghanaian Entrepreneurs, Founders and Creatives worldwide with the aim of leaving listeners with meaningful takeaways to apply to life, business and career. The mission is to showcase Global Ghanaian Excellence.
#MobileMoney #AfricanFintech #PawaPay #AfricaPayments #Stablecoin #MobileMoneAfrica #FinTechAfrica #GhanaFintech #B2BPayments #MPesa #DiasporaRemittance #africatech