How much capital does a payment switching licence require across African markets?
Across the 5 African markets that publish a minimum-capital figure for a payment switching licence, the floor is set by each market's own statute, in that market's own currency — some as a single amount, some tiered by the services the licence authorizes. Below is the record for each market, verbatim and source-linked. Amounts stay in the statute's own currency; Afriset reports the requirement, not a cross-currency comparison — there is no conversion or ranking here.
Regulators name this licence differently market by market: System Operator in South Africa, Payment System Operator in Uganda, Payment System Operators in Rwanda, Switching Service Provider in Tanzania, plus 3 more in the table below. Operators ask about this licence in other words: payment switch or interoperability. Minimum capital is one requirement among several; what it takes in full, market by market, is linked below.
“Payment switching” here is the normalized activity: Own or operate payment switching, routing, clearing or interoperability infrastructure between payment service providers, issuers, acquirers and schemes. The comparable axis is the minimum-capital floor its licence attaches — structure, tiers and denomination currency differ by market and are shown as published, not converted.
Activity id (as used by the Afriset MCP): fintech:SWITCHING
Minimum capital, market by market
| Market | Licence category | Minimum capital (as published) | Source | Source date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethiopia | Payment System Operator (Switch Operator) | ETB 300 million (three hundred million Birr) for a national switch operator; ETB 40 million (forty million Birr) for a switch operator (the sum of the relevant tiers if the applicant operates two or more systems). Verbatim"An applicant intending to be licensed as payment system operator shall have a paid up capital of not less than: a) ETB 300 million (three hundred million Birr) if it is the national switch operator; b) ETB 40 million (forty million Birr) if it is a switch operator; … f) the sum of a paid up capital stated hereinabove under each operator if an applicant intends to be licensed to operate two or more of the payment systems." | Licensing and Authorization of Payment System Operators Directive No. ONPS/02/2020 (operative PSO base) | 2020 |
| Kenya | To own, possess, operate, manage or control infrastructure for the provision of payment services | Not published. No separate statutory minimum for a switch/infrastructure operator. The NPS Act 2011 states no capital figure; the NPS Regulations 2014 First Schedule has no switching/infrastructure row — the listed categories are ERPSP, Designated Payment Instrument Issuer (KES 50M), E-money Issuer, Small E-money Issuer. Infrastructure/switching is authorised under the general PSP regime (Reg 4) with no dedicated capital line. | National Payment System Act No. 39 of 2011 | 2023-09-15 |
| Nigeria | Switching & Processing Licence Category | ₦2,000,000,000 shareholders' funds unimpaired by losses + refundable escrow ₦2bn Verbatim"N2,000,000,000.00 (shareholders' funds unimpaired by losses) … Escrow of refundable N2bn into CBN PSP Share Capital Deposit Account No. 1000014009" | CBN, Approved New Licence Categorization Requirements (Consolidated – 2021) — the per-category eligibility/capital/fee sheets giving effect to the circular "New Licence Categorizations for the Nigerian Payments System" (ref BPSD, issued 9 Dec 2020). | 2020-12-09 |
| Rwanda | Payment System Operators | FRW 500,000,000 (a designated payment system under Reg 75/2023 Art 18 — higher than any Reg 74 PSP category) Verbatim"The designated payment system holds a minimum paid up cash capital of not less than FRW 500,000,000." | Regulation N° 75/2023 of 18/09/2023 on payment systems (same Gazette n° 38 Bis) — for the switch/PSO capital | 2023-09-25 |
| South Africa | System Operator | None in the Directive. Authorisation is criteria-based (PASA/PA criteria, Bank-approved), not capital-gated. Verbatim"meet the criteria as recommended by the relevant payment system management body, which criteria have been approved by the Bank in terms of section 4(2)(c)(i) of the NPS Act." | NPS Act 78 of 1998 — Directive No. 2 of 2007 (System Operators), GN 1111, Gazette 30261, 6 Sep 2007 | 2007-09-06 |
| Tanzania | Switching Service Provider | Not published. The Payment Systems (Licensing and Approval) Regulations 2015 require documentary evidence of paid-up capital (reg 6(h)) but publish no numeric minimum-capital threshold for the switching/data-management category - the First Schedule sets licence fees only. | The Payment Systems (Licensing and Approval) Regulations, 2015 (GN under the NPS Act 2015; s.56) | not dated |
| Uganda | Payment System Operator | Clearing systems or switches: UGX 500,000,000. (Other PSO classes: settlement systems 250m; third-party systems 100m; funds-transfer large 1bn / medium 500m / small 100m.) Verbatim"(a) funds transfer systems (i) large funds transfer systems whose transaction value exceeds one hundred billion shillings per month. … 1,000,000,000/= (ii) medium funds transfer systems whose transaction value exceeds one billion shillings per month and does not exceed one hundred billion shillings per month. … 500,000,000/= (iii) small funds transfer systems whose transaction value does not exceed one billion shillings per month. … 100,000,000/= … (b) clearing systems or switches — 500,000,000/= … (c) settlement systems — 250,000,000/= … (d) third party systems — 100,000,000/=" | National Payment Systems Regulations, 2021 (S.I. 2021 No. 18) | 2021-02-26 |
| Zambia | Payment System Operator | Not published. No published number. Delegated to BoZ (s.87); no ZMW minimum in the Act or the designation requirements. | National Payment System Act, 2026 (Act No. 5 of 2026) — enabling Act, categories + delegation | 2026-04-08 |
Each figure is the minimum capital as published in the cited instrument, in the statute's own currency — not legal or compliance advice, and not converted or ranked across currencies. A tiered floor is shown in full, never reduced to one tier. Where a figure is located but not yet verified, we show that it exists without publishing it. Verify current requirements with the regulator. Rules, not rates: amounts are the published requirement, never an exchange rate.
Maintained: this official source is re-checked on a weekly schedule — last checked 2026-08-04 · unchanged since the previous check.