Africa Loyalty Market Size & Forecast by Spend Value Across 100+ KPIs by Program Type, Channel Mix, Sector, Embedded Loyalty Penetration, and Platform Spend Segmentation - Databook Q1 2026 Update

The loyalty market in Africa is expected to grow by 16.9% annually, reaching US$803.2 million by 2026.

The loyalty market in the region has experienced robust growth during 2021-2025, achieving a CAGR of 19.0%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 14.6% from 2026 to 2030. By the end of 2030, the loyalty market is projected to expand from its 2025 value of US$687.0 million to approximately US$1.38 billion.

Key Trends and Drivers - Loyalty in Africa

Loyalty in Africa is shaped by the dominance of mobile money, the centrality of everyday retail spending, and structural constraints around data, identity, and merchant economics. Over the forecasting period, loyalty models are expected to deepen their integration into payments and retail ecosystems rather than evolve into standalone or coalition-led programs. The market trajectory favours embedded, usage-driven rewards with clear transactional value, while premium and data-intensive loyalty models remain confined to specific sectors and consumer segments.

Embed Loyalty into Mobile Money and Everyday Payment Flows

Loyalty across Africa is increasingly embedded into mobile money, airtime, and bill-payment journeys rather than operating as standalone programs. Rewards are linked directly to high-frequency transactions such as P2P transfers, merchant payments, airtime top-ups, and utilities. For example, Safaricom continues to position M-Pesa rewards and merchant incentives around usage and retention, while MTN Group has expanded MoMo-linked rewards and partner offers across multiple African markets.

Mobile money remains the primary financial interface for a large share of consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. Ecommerce, informal retail, and service payments increasingly flow through wallets rather than cards. Loyalty therefore follows the transaction rail with the highest reach and daily relevance.

Embedded loyalty tied to wallets and payments is expected to intensify, with greater emphasis on instant rewards and merchant-funded offers. Standalone points programs with delayed redemption are likely to lose relevance in mass-market segments.

Anchor Loyalty in Grocery, Fuel, and Everyday Retail

Retail-led loyalty in Africa is concentrated in grocery, fuel, and pharmacy rather than discretionary categories. Programs are structured around savings, discounts, and repeat visits. Shoprite Group continues to operate Xtra Savings across Southern and parts of West Africa, while SPAR Group maintains app- and card-based loyalty mechanics tied to frequent grocery shopping. In fuel, players such as TotalEnergies maintain rewards and discounts linked to refuelling frequency. Food and fuel account for a disproportionate share of household spend across African economies. Retailers use loyalty to protect share of wallet and manage price sensitivity without permanently altering shelf prices. Retail loyalty is expected to remain practical and frequency-driven, with limited shift toward aspirational rewards. Integration with retailer apps and wallets will deepen, but the core value proposition will remain savings-oriented.

Maintain Airline and Travel Loyalty as a Distinct Premium Layer

Airline loyalty programs continue to operate as structurally separate ecosystems focused on status, miles, and partner earn rather than mass-market discounts. Ethiopian Airlines maintains ShebaMiles as a regional hub-and-spoke loyalty program, while South African Airways has continued rebuilding Voyager partnerships as travel volumes normalise.

International and regional travel remains uneven across African markets, but frequent flyers and corporate travellers remain a profitable niche. Airline loyalty economics differ from retail and wallet-based programs, relying on partner earn and redemption breakage.

Airline loyalty will remain stable but segmented, with selective expansion of non-air partners rather than broad consumer coalitions. These programs will coexist alongside mass-market retail and payment-led loyalty rather than converge with them.

Use Loyalty as a Merchant Enablement and Data Tool

Loyalty is increasingly positioned as a tool for merchant enablement rather than consumer branding. Payment providers and aggregators offer cashback, vouchers, and targeted offers funded by merchants. Flutterwave and Paystack support merchant-led promotions that function as de-facto loyalty without formal enrollment.

SMEs dominate African retail. Many lack the scale to operate proprietary loyalty programs but are willing to fund targeted offers that drive repeat purchases. Digital payments provide the transaction visibility required for this model.

Merchant-funded loyalty mechanics are expected to expand, particularly in urban markets, with increasing use of targeted and location-based offers. This will raise expectations for measurable ROI rather than broad points accumulation.

Operate Loyalty Within Tight Data and Regulatory Constraints

Programs are designed with limited data collection and simple mechanics, reflecting regulatory scrutiny and uneven consumer consent norms. Markets such as South Africa and Nigeria continue to reinforce data-protection enforcement, influencing how loyalty platforms structure identification and personalisation.

Recent regulatory enforcement and rising consumer awareness have constrained aggressive data-driven targeting. At the same time, fragmented identity infrastructure limits cross-merchant tracking.

Loyalty programs are likely to prioritise transaction-based triggers over deep personal profiling. Growth in advanced personalisation will be gradual and concentrated among large platforms with strong compliance capabilities.

Competitive Landscape - Loyalty in Africa

Competition in African loyalty is defined by ecosystem control rather than the proliferation of standalone programs. Over the forecasting period, competitive intensity is expected to increase within embedded loyalty models particularly around instant rewards and merchant-funded incentives while the overall market structure remains fragmented and incumbent-led. Regulatory and operational realities are likely to reinforce this dynamic, favouring platforms with scale, compliance capacity, and control over daily consumer transactions.

Compete Across Payments, Retail, and Travel Rather Than Standalone Loyalty

Current state of competition

The African loyalty landscape remains fragmented and sector-led rather than consolidated around dedicated loyalty specialists. Competitive intensity is highest where loyalty is embedded into payments, grocery retail, fuel, and travel. Standalone coalition loyalty models are limited, with most programs tied closely to a parent platform or operating company.
Mobile money operators, large retailers, and airlines dominate consumer-facing loyalty, while fintechs and payment processors increasingly influence execution through merchant-funded incentives. Competition is therefore uneven, with scale advantages concentrated among platforms that already control high-frequency consumer transactions.

Anchor Market Power with Telecom, Retail, and Airline Incumbents

Key players

Telecom-led ecosystems continue to exert structural advantage. Safaricom leverages M-Pesa-linked incentives and merchant rewards to reinforce ecosystem usage in Kenya, while MTN Group operates MoMo rewards and partner offers across multiple African markets, positioning loyalty as a usage and retention layer.
In retail, large grocery groups maintain defensible loyalty positions through scale and everyday relevance. Shoprite Group continues to operate Xtra Savings as a core engagement and pricing tool across Southern Africa, while Pick n Pay maintains Smart Shopper as an integrated app- and card-based program.
Airline loyalty remains a separate competitive tier. Ethiopian Airlines continues to position ShebaMiles as a regional loyalty hub with non-air partners, while South African Airways continues to rebuild Voyager partnerships.

New Entrants Focus on Enablement and Merchant Tools

New competitive entry is concentrated at the enablement layer rather than consumer-facing schemes. Fintechs and payment processors such as Paystack and Flutterwave enable merchant-funded discounts, cashback, and targeted offers that function as de-facto loyalty without formal enrollment.
These players compete indirectly with traditional loyalty programs by offering merchants simpler, ROI-driven alternatives tied directly to payment acceptance.

Extend Ecosystems Through Selective Partnerships Rather Than Coalitions

Recent partnership activity has focused on extending existing ecosystems rather than forming broad coalitions. Mobile money platforms have continued to onboard retail, fuel, and service merchants into rewards and cashback frameworks, while airlines have selectively expanded non-air earn and burn partnerships.
Retailers have prioritised partnerships with payment wallets and apps to reduce friction at checkout, reinforcing embedded loyalty rather than cross-brand point pooling.

Compete Under Tightening Data and Consumer Protection Regulation

Data-protection enforcement has remained a defining factor in key markets such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Ongoing enforcement of frameworks including South Africa’s POPIA and Nigeria’s NDPR has reinforced requirements around consent, data minimisation, and transparency in rewards-driven marketing.
These dynamics have constrained aggressive personalisation and limited cross-platform data sharing, particularly for smaller players.

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the loyalty industry in Africa, offering comprehensive coverage of both overall and alternative lending markets. It covers more than 100+ KPIs, including spend value on loyalty schemes, loyalty breakage rate, and penetration rate.

The report provides in-depth segmentation across the loyalty ecosystem, capturing loyalty spend value and breaking it down by core market dimensions. It classifies loyalty activity by program models (such as points, cashback, tiered, subscription, coalition, and gamified formats), membership structures, and execution channels (in-store, online, and mobile app), alongside embedded loyalty use cases integrated into payments, commerce, and platform ecosystems. The analysis further segments the market by industry verticals and assesses technology enablement, including AI-driven personalisation and emerging blockchain-led program mechanics. In addition, the dataset captures consumer demographics, enrolment pathways, and key program economics such as value accumulation, redemption, and breakage. Collectively, these datasets provide a comprehensive and quantifiable view of market size, structure, engagement behaviour, and value realisation dynamics within the loyalty market.

The research methodology is based on industry best practices. Its unbiased analysis leverages a proprietary analytics platform to deliver a detailed view of market performance, structural trends, and growth dynamics across the loyalty ecosystem, covering loyalty spend value, consumer engagement patterns, and channel execution.

This title is a bundled offering, combining the following 5 reports, covering 350+ tables and 500+ figures:

• Africa Loyalty Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook
• Egypt Loyalty Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook
• Kenya Loyalty Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook
• Nigeria Loyalty Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook
• South Africa Loyalty Market Business and Investment Opportunities Databook

Report Scope

This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the loyalty industry, with comprehensive coverage across retail-sector context, loyalty spend dynamics, and loyalty platform economics. Below is a summary of key market segments:

Retail Sector Market Context

• Retail Industry Market Size, 2021-2030
• Ecommerce Market Size, 2021-2030
• POS Market Size Trend Analysis, 2021-2030

Loyalty Spend Market Size and Growth Dynamics

• Loyalty Spend Market Size and Future Growth Dynamics, 2021-2030
• Loyalty Spend on Schemes by Value Accumulated and Value Redemption Rate, 2025
• Loyalty Spend Share by Functional Domains, 2021-2030
• Loyalty Spend by Loyalty Schemes, 2021-2030
• Loyalty Spend by Loyalty Platforms, 2021-2030

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Loyalty Program Type

• Point-based Loyalty Program
• Tiered Loyalty Program
• Mission-driven Loyalty Program
• Spend-based Loyalty Program
• Gaming Loyalty Program
• Free Perks Loyalty Program
• Subscription Loyalty Program
• Community Loyalty Program
• Refer a Friend Loyalty Program
• Paid Loyalty Program
• Cashback Loyalty Program

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Channel

• In-Store
• Online
• Mobile

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Business Model

• Seller Driven
• Payment Instrument Driven
• Other Segment

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Key Sectors

• Retail
• Financial Services
• Healthcare & Wellness
• Restaurants & Food Delivery
• Travel & Hospitality (Cabs, Hotels, Airlines)
• Telecoms
• Media & Entertainment
• Other

Sector × Channel Views: Loyalty Schemes Spend by Key Sectors and Channels

• Online Loyalty Spend by Sector, 2021-2030
• In-store Loyalty Spend by Sector, 2021-2030
• Mobile App Loyalty Spend by Sector, 2021-2030

Retail Sector Deep-Dive: Loyalty Schemes Spend by Retail Segment

• Diversified Retailers
• Department Stores
• Specialty Stores
• Supermarket and Convenience Store
• Other

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Accessibility

• Card Based Access
• Digital Access

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Consumer Type

• B2B Consumers
• B2C Consumers

Loyalty Schemes Spend Segmentation by Membership Type

• Free
• Free + Premium
• Premium

Loyalty Spend Split by Embedded vs. Non-Embedded Loyalty

• Embedded Loyalty Programs
• Non-Embedded Loyalty Programs

Loyalty Spend Split by Use of AI / Blockchain

• AI Driven Loyalty Program
• Blockchain Driven Loyalty Program

Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Software Use Case

• Analytics and AI Driven
• Management Platform

Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Vendor / Solution Partner

• In-house
• Third-Party Vendor

Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Deployment

• Cloud
• On-Premise

Loyalty Platform Spend Segmentation by Offering

• Software
• Services
• Custom Built Platform vs. Off the Shelf Platform

Consumer Demographics & Behaviour (Loyalty Spend Share), 2025

• Age Group
• Income Level
• Gender

Loyalty Program KPIs, Behavioral Metrics & Embedded, 2025

• Primary Loyalty Motivation Split Analysis
• Loyalty Program Breakage Rate Analysis
• Loyalty Program Enrollment Channel Mix Analysis
• Embedded Loyalty Penetration by Channel

Reasons to Buy

• Comprehensive Market Intelligence: Gain a comprehensive view of the loyalty market by quantifying total loyalty spend value and its composition across loyalty schemes and loyalty platforms, supported by retail context indicators to benchmark market scale, structure, and growth dynamics.
• Granular Loyalty Spend Coverage: Analyze loyalty spend value across loyalty schemes and loyalty platforms, supported by structured segmentation across program types (e.g., point-based, tiered, cashback, subscription, community, gaming, mission-driven, paid, and referral-led formats).
• Channel and Sector-Level Execution Insights: Evaluate how loyalty spend is distributed across in-store, online, and mobile channels, and across key verticals including Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare & Wellness, Restaurants & Food Delivery, Travel & Hospitality, Telecoms, and Media & Entertainment, with dedicated sector × channel views.
• Program Structure and Participation Mix: Understand how loyalty schemes differ by business model (seller-driven vs. payment-instrument-driven), accessibility (card-based vs. digital), consumer type (B2B vs. B2C), and membership type (free, premium, and free+premium), enabling more precise program design and competitive benchmarking.
• Embedded Loyalty and Emerging Mechanisms Tracking: Assess the evolution of embedded vs. non-embedded loyalty and track spend splits linked to program enablement, including AI-driven and blockchain-driven loyalty program spend where captured in the dataset.
• Platform Spend and Vendor/Deployment Benchmarking: Benchmark loyalty platform economics by software use case (analytics/AI-driven vs. management platforms), solution partner model (in-house vs. third-party), deployment (cloud vs. on-premise), and offering mix (software vs. services; custom-built vs. off-the-shelf).
• Consumer Demographics and Program KPI Lens: Access loyalty spend share by age, income, and gender, alongside decision-critical program KPIs such as loyalty penetration (% of retail sales under loyalty), primary motivation split, breakage rate, enrollment channel mix, and embedded loyalty penetration by channel.
• Decision-Ready Databook Format with 100+ KPIs: Leverage a structured dataset with historical and forecast coverage through 2030, designed for direct integration into market models, strategic planning, and executive presentations by retailers, platforms, payment providers, technology vendors, and investors.