🍔 Quick Bite: Across Africa, ATMs are going quiet as mobile money, POS networks, and digital payments take their place. From Kenya’s booming M-Pesa transactions to Nigeria’s record ₦284 trillion in e-payments, cash is losing its grip. The continent isn’t going cashless; it’s becoming agent-led, data-driven, and irreversibly digital.
🧠 The Breakdown
Automated teller machines (ATMs), once symbols of financial inclusion and convenience, are quietly fading from African cities. In South Africa, Standard Bank has closed 1,942 ATMs in five years, cutting its network from 9,321 in 2019 to 5,562 in 2024. The country’s four largest banks shut 233 ATMs in the first half of 2024 alone. Standard Bank closed 76, Absa 75, Nedbank 42, and FNB 40.
This trend aligns with data from the Visa-Discovery SpendTrend25 report, which found that 84% of South Africans now prefer digital payments for transactions exceeding R100 ($5). Across the continent, a similar story is unfolding with local nuances. ATM numbers in Kenya fell to 2,282 in 2023, the lowest in five years, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). In Nigeria, machines often sit idle or run out of cash entirely. Ghana is also seeing a steady decline in ATM usage as mobile money adoption accelerates.
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Last updated: October 6, 2025
