Africa’s Payments Problem Is Not What You Think – Inside Mobile Money Infrastructure with Nikolai Barnwell

About this episode

Nikolai Barnwell discusses the complexities of mobile money infrastructure in Africa and how it connects to global financial systems.

Episode 220 with Nikolai Barnwell, CEO of pawaPay, a leading pan African payments company building the financial rails that connect mobile money wallets across the continent and to the rest of the world. Nikolai brings over a decade of experience across mobile operating systems, business management, and digital infrastructure to this conversation about how money actually moves across Africa. In addition to leading pawaPay, he serves as a board member at 88mph.ac, an early stage investme...

People in this episode

Host: Terser Adamu

Guest: Nikolai Barnwell

Topics covered

• mobile money
• payments infrastructure
• financial technology
• Africa
• business management

Keywords

• mobile money
• payments
• Africa
• financial infrastructure
• pawaPay

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: pawaPay, 88mph.ac

More episodes of Unlocking Africa

• Can Financing Unlock Africa's EV Revolution Faster Than Technology? with Nena Sanderson · June 8, 2026 · 44 min
• The Battle for Africa's Financial Rails: Stablecoins, Regulators, Cross Border Payments and Trade with Mimi Kufuor · June 1, 2026 · 53 min
• The Untapped Trillion Dollar Opportunity in Africa’s Diaspora Economy with Nicholas Bassey · May 25, 2026 · 45 min
• Why Hiring and Paying Employees in Africa Is Harder Than Most Companies Expect with Ernestine Van Rappard · May 18, 2026 · 36 min
• The Future of Ecommerce in Africa and Why Speed and Reliability Is Everything with Dima Rasnovsky · May 11, 2026 · 39 min
• The Nigerian Entrepreneur Building Africa’s Sports Economy Through Boxing, Events and Entertainment with Ezekiel Adamu · May 4, 2026 · 27 min