PawaPay Insights 002
Remittance payments don't stop when the working day ends. For the providers moving money across borders, however, the hours when funds can be moved and made available still matter.
In our first PawaPay Insight, we examined when people send money home and found that payout activity peaked on Thursdays at 13:00 UK time. This time, we've looked beyond the busiest periods to understand how much remittance payout value moves outside standard working hours.
We analysed successful remittance payouts through the PawaPay network over the twelve months ending 14 October 2026 and found that 61.9% of total payout value was initiated outside standard UK working hours, defined as Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00.
Weekday evenings accounted for 24.1% of total payout value, weekends for 22.5% and weekday early mornings for 15.3%.
The pattern was consistent across the international money transfer operators included in the analysis, with every operator recording more than half of its payout value outside the defined working-hours window. Individual shares ranged from approximately 58% to 69%.
Between Friday at 17:00 and Monday at 09:00 UK time, 31.1% of the total value of remittance payouts was initiated, almost a third of all payout value over a continuous 64-hour period.
For providers sending remittances into African markets, these figures offer a clearer picture of when funds need to be available.
Mobile money payouts can take place throughout evenings and weekends, while some of the banking and settlement services used to move funds operate on more limited schedules.
This difference between payment availability and settlement hours is receiving attention from central banks. In May 2026, the European Central Bank announced plans for a short weekend window in its settlement system, allowing banks to top up accounts used to support payments that operate around the clock.
In the same month, the Bank of England consulted on extending settlement hours, including an additional weekend settlement day.
Although these developments concern European banking infrastructure rather than African mobile money networks, they illustrate a wider issue for payment providers: the systems used to move funds do not always operate on the same schedules as the payments they support.
Understanding when payout value moves can help providers plan when funds need to be available across the African markets they serve.
PawaPay helps payment providers reach mobile money wallets across multiple African markets through one API and one contract. We manage mobile network operator integrations, alongside treasury, settlement and reconciliation arrangements, reducing the need for providers to manage each local connection themselves.
Talk to PawaPay about sending remittances into Africa.
This analysis covers successful remittance payouts through international money transfer operators using the PawaPay network over the twelve months ending 14 October 2026. It uses the same operator cohort and analytical approach as PawaPay Insights 001, with an updated reporting period.
All figures represent shares of payout value, based on transaction initiation times converted to UK time. Standard working hours are defined as Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00 UK time, with weekday evenings running from 17:00 to midnight and weekday early mornings from midnight to 09:00.
The Friday-to-Monday period runs from Friday 17:00 to Monday 09:00 UK time. Its 31.1% share is included within the overall 61.9% out-of-hours figure.
Results are aggregated and anonymised to protect merchant confidentiality.
