Adedeji Olowe on five structural barriers: no network effects, low smartphone penetration, unreliable infrastructure, costly data, and poor app UX. Payment innovation succeeds when it accounts for local reality.
Adedeji Olowe argues that QR code payments — despite dominance in China via WeChat — face five structural barriers in Africa: no network effects, 33% smartphone penetration, unreliable infrastructure, costly data, and poor app UX. Drawing on a 2016 meeting in Tanzania where a global payments giant was rejected, the article explains why USSD and STK methods like M-Pesa succeeded by accounting for African realities that QR ignores.