Yemisi Izuora
Nigeria is among four African countries that featured in the global Top 50 for cross-border payments interoperability.
Kenya also featured in the report according to a ranking published on June 2, 2026, by Singapore-based cross-border payments company Thunes. The ranking covers more than 130 countries and over 90 currencies.
The ranking, titled The Thunes Cross-Border Payments Interoperability Index, assesses the ease of conducting cross-border transactions across the world’s 50 best-performing markets in this area.
Thunes based the index on a survey of 6,600 respondents, including consumers and businesses, across 10 major markets: China, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Brazil, Germany, South Africa and Saudi Arabia.
The company also incorporated indicators from multiple sources, including the World Bank’s Global Findex 2025 database and World Bank remittance cost data. The index groups these indicators into five dimensions. These dimensions include economic health, digital infrastructure, financial inclusion, cross-border connectivity and market dynamics.
The economic health dimension measures factors such as GDP, trade openness and quality of life. The digital infrastructure dimension measures internet penetration and the share of adults who have made or received a digital payment during the previous three months.
The financial inclusion dimension measures wealth inequality, access to bank branches and the share of adults holding a formal financial account or mobile money account. The cross-border connectivity dimension measures remittance costs, the share of transactions processed through instant payment systems and the overall value of the cross-border payments market.
The market dynamics dimension evaluates regulatory initiatives that support money transfer markets, including open banking measures and cryptocurrency regulations, as well as projected growth in cross-border payments activity. The index assigns each country a score ranging from 0, indicating very low interoperability, to 10, indicating optimal interoperability.
In Africa, the index shows that payment preferences vary significantly across markets, although cash remains the dominant payment instrument across much of the continent. Infrastructure conditions and regulatory frameworks continue to drive differences in the adoption of digital payment methods, including card payments, account-to-account bank transfers and mobile wallets.
African countries with the highest levels of fintech innovation generally achieve the strongest results in cross-border payments interoperability. Kenya ranks as Africa’s leading market for interoperability between international payment systems. The East African nation, which pioneered local fintech innovation and mobile money adoption, ranks 36th globally with a score of 4.2.
Nigeria ranks second in Africa and 43rd globally with a score of 3.6. South Africa follows in 44th place globally with a score of 3.6, while Egypt ranks 47th with a score of 3.0. However, the relatively modest scores and rankings of these four African countries reflect broader international headwinds. In particular, the continued reduction of correspondent banking relationships has limited Africa’s integration into global financial networks.
Globally, Denmark ranks first for cross-border payments interoperability with a score of 8.8, ahead of Singapore and Norway. More broadly, the index highlights a global payments system that remains highly fragmented. Domestic transactions generally move efficiently, but cross-border payments continue to face significant friction arising from infrastructure gaps, regulatory differences and incompatibilities between financial systems.
While domestic payments settle smoothly, cross-border transactions often encounter delays even in major financial markets. Consequently, the gap between consumers’ domestic payment experiences and international payment experiences continues to widen rather than narrow. Many recipients of international payments still wait two days or longer to receive funds, despite domestic transfers settling within seconds in many markets.
The index also highlights a significant shift in the way consumers send and receive international payments. Mobile wallets and payment applications now represent the primary channels for sending money abroad.
Thunes found that 48 per cent of survey respondents worldwide use these tools for international transfers.
At the same time, 11 per cent of respondents use cryptocurrency platforms to send money across borders. In some markets, cryptocurrency adoption is significantly higher. In Nigeria, for example, 40 per cent of respondents use cryptocurrency platforms for international money transfers.