Zimbabwe's central bank governor says talks with NPCI International could conclude by October 31, with the proposed system aiming to lower transaction costs, speed up payments and give the government better data on small businesses.
Zimbabwe is negotiating with the international arm of India's National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to modernise its payments infrastructure, as the southern African country looks to make transactions cheaper and faster, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Under the proposal, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) would serve as shared infrastructure. Banks, mobile-money operators, fintech companies and other payment providers could plug into it and process transactions in real time.
Central bank Governor John Mushayavanhu told Bloomberg that the discussions with NPCI International Payments Ltd could be completed by October 31. He said the technology could support new financial products and allow banks to serve merchants at lower cost. Direct account-to-account transfers, he added, could reduce the reliance on cards for small domestic payments.
Shared real-time systems of this kind let customers of different banks and wallets send money to one another directly. That interoperability is why policymakers often see them as a way to bring down the cost of low-value payments for both merchants and consumers.
Data on small businesses and cross-border ambitions
The governor said the system could also give the government more dependable information on small and medium-sized businesses, helping it measure more accurately how much they contribute to the economy. Looking further ahead, he said Zimbabwe could eventually use UPI for cross-border payments and remittances.
Zimbabwe is among several African countries expanding digital payments to cut transaction costs, bring more businesses into the formal financial system and depend less on cash. The talks are still under way, and the report did not set out commercial terms, a rollout schedule or the providers expected to take part.
UPI's growing global footprint
UPI lets users move money between bank accounts instantly through mobile apps. More than 700 banks use it, and it accounts for nearly 49% of real-time payment transactions worldwide. NPCI launched the platform on August 25, 2016, under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India. It has since become a pillar of India's digital payments system and a driver of financial inclusion.
UPI currently operates in 11 countries: the United Arab Emirates, France, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Mauritius, Qatar, Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives. A Finance Ministry note issued in August said UPI handled 84% of India's digital payment transactions in FY2025-26 and 49% of global real-time payment volumes in 2025.
