PawaPay, a leading pan-African payments aggregator, has officially partnered with the online trading platform Deriv to support mobile money deposits across multiple African markets.
The integration currently enables users in eight African countries to fund their trading accounts using their everyday mobile money wallets. The companies have also outlined strategic plans to expand this connectivity even further across the continent in the near future.
Deriv selected PawaPay to support its overarching African expansion strategy, seeking a solution that could deliver mobile money capabilities without sacrificing localization or reliability as transaction volumes grow. Through this partnership, Deriv users gain direct access to local payment methods via a single, compliant connection to major mobile operators.
For platforms operating across African markets, mobile money serves as a primary method for customer transactions. However, offering this payment option reliably requires extensive local operator connectivity, strict regulatory alignment, and the ability to manage payments consistently across diverse jurisdictions. PawaPay handles these complex operational details—including payment processing, settlement, foreign exchange, and reconciliation—allowing global platforms like Deriv to operate efficiently at scale.
Since the partnership went live, Deriv has reported a measurable increase in mobile money deposits across its active markets. Coordinated launch and education campaigns helped accelerate user adoption, while the underlying reliability of PawaPay’s integration resulted in fewer failed transactions and more predictable settlements. Furthermore, PawaPay provides hands-on support during periods of network instability to ensure technical issues are addressed before they can negatively impact end users.
Industry leaders weigh in on the expansion
Nikolai Barnwell, CEO at PawaPay, highlighted the critical role of stable infrastructure in the region. He noted that while mobile money is already deeply embedded in how people transact across Africa, the real challenge for expanding companies is running these systems reliably as transaction volumes grow. Barnwell explained that PawaPay’s role is to keep payments predictable so that platforms like Deriv can focus entirely on their customers rather than getting bogged down in operational details.
Derek Swift, head of client funding facilities at Deriv, echoed these sentiments, calling the partnership central to the trading platform’s expansion across Africa. Swift praised PawaPay’s platform for performing reliably in markets where payment infrastructure requires genuine local expertise. He also commended the responsiveness of the PawaPay team, stating that the collaboration has successfully opened up markets that were previously completely inaccessible to the trading firm.
PawaPay currently operates across 20 African markets, providing businesses with clear transaction statuses and comprehensive regulatory coverage. Deriv, which has been operating for 26 years, serves over three million traders worldwide and offers more than 300 assets across its platforms.
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