Mozambique moves forward on digital wage payments as ILO and Vodacom M-Pesa join forces

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MAPUTO, Mozambique (ILO News) – A new chapter in the rollout of responsible digital wage payments in Mozambique began on 20 March 2026, as the ILO Global Centre on Digital Wages for Decent Work, ILO MoZ Trabalha project and Vodacom M-Pesa, a leading mobile money operator in Mozambique, brought together 35 M-Pesa staff from across the country for a full-day capacity-building workshop in Maputo.

The event signals the start of a broader partnership between the ILO and Vodacom M-Pesa, one that comes at a pivotal moment, as M-Pesa prepares to expand its offer with the launch of new digital payroll solutions in the Mozambican market.

Participants from Maputo and five provinces — Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Manica, Sofala and Gaza — explored strategies to scale digital wage payments across regions, sectors and business segments, while identifying the guardrails needed to ensure low-income workers are protected and able to fully benefit from the transition, in particular the most vulnerable among them such as women, and casual or seasonal workers.

The workshop drew on both global expertise and local experience. Valerie Breda from the ILO Global Centre and Oswell Kahonde from the Better Than Cash Alliance presented global principles on responsible digital wage payments and shared international examples relevant to the Mozambican context, while Joana Borges and Martin Gasser from ILO Maputo highlighted the links between digital wage payments and the broader decent work agenda, including social protection, business formalization and supply chain compliance.

Joana Borges, Social Protection Project Manager, emphasized the broader impact of digital wages: “Digital wages are not only a payment innovation; they can be a critical enabler of access to social insurance. By making income flows more visible, secure and traceable, they help promote the transition to formality and create clearer, more reliable pathways for workers to be identified, registered and connected to social insurance systems.”

The financial inclusion dimension was deepened by Oluwatosin Onaneye, Product Manager at Nigerian payroll fintech SeamlessHR, who shared insights on the potential of digital wage payments to expand access to financial services. Drawing on SeamlessHR’s experience with embedded finance solutions, discussions examined how payroll products and data can be leveraged to improve financial services for workers and employers, particularly in areas such as wage advances and savings.

The workshop also drew on lessons from an ongoing pilot in Zambezia, where the ILO through MoZ Trabalha, M-Pesa and Portucel, a major Portuguese pulp and paper company operating in Mozambique, have been supporting the transition to mobile money wage payments within Portucel’s forestry supply chain. The results of that experience have informed the design of the broader collaboration now taking shape.

”Piloting responsible digital wages in Zambezia with Vodacom M-Pesa and Portucel has shown the enormous potential to improve working conditions for occasional workers in silviculture, while reducing costs and time for the private sector. M-Pesa can play an important role in upscaling to other enterprises and sectors”, says Martin Gasser.

For Vodacom M-Pesa, the partnership represents a strategic opportunity. ”It was inspiring to see how responsible digital payment solutions, particularly in salary disbursements, can transform the lives of workers, strengthen businesses and empower communities, ensuring that every transaction is more secure, faster and more reliable. We remain committed to ensuring that M-Pesa continues to serve as a catalyst for financial inclusion, transparency and efficiency in salary payments”, said Erica Varinde, the company’s Head of Corporate Services.  

As part of their strengthened collaboration, M-Pesa will be hosting an ILO Social Finance Fellow, Gabriella Costa, over the next 12 months to support capacity building, awareness-raising and targeted research. This work will help refine M-Pesa’s approach and promote responsible digital wage payments, with a focus on gender-responsive practices and scaling at the national level.