Can India’s homegrown digital payments marvel—UPI—become the backbone of real-time payments across the world? If the recent developments in Namibia are anything to go by, the answer is a resounding yes.

In a major stride toward globalizing India’s fintech capabilities, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has officially signed a licensing agreement with the Bank of Namibia, the central bank of the African nation. The agreement will enable Namibia to develop its own real-time payments system modeled on India’s widely celebrated Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

This makes Namibia the first country in the world to sign a licensing agreement with NPCI to deploy UPI-style infrastructure for domestic use—marking a significant milestone in India’s efforts to export digital public infrastructure as a global good.

Speaking at a press briefing, Dammu Ravi, Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs, described the move as a significant outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Namibia. He announced, “Namibia is the first country in the world where NPCI and the Namibian central bank have entered into a licensing agreement to deploy UPI in Namibia for real-time payments.”

But this agreement isn’t something that happened overnight. It follows over a year of dialogue and groundwork between NPCI’s international arm—NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and the Bank of Namibia. The collaboration has been focused on transferring India’s technological expertise and building capacity in Namibia to launch a real-time digital payments system tailored to their needs.

While UPI has revolutionized payments for millions of Indians—eliminating the need for cash and making peer-to-peer transactions seamless—India is now positioning this innovation as a digital public good that can benefit the world.

Namibia isn’t alone. NPCI has already signed similar MoUs or partnerships with several other countries, especially those in the Global South who see value in replicating India’s model for cost-effective, secure, and scalable payments.

Today, UPI payments are already accepted in countries like France, Bhutan, Nepal, Singapore, and the UAE, marking the beginning of what could eventually be a global network of interoperable, real-time payment systems.

While India takes UPI global, its domestic growth story is equally impressive. In just the last month alone, UPI clocked 18.4 billion transactions, processing payments worth a staggering INR 24.04 lakh crore.

To achieve its ambitious target of 1 billion UPI transactions per day, NPCI is also looking ahead with innovation. It is currently working on an IoT-enabled version of UPI, which will allow users to make payments through:

This futuristic approach aims to make UPI even more embedded in users’ daily lives, turning ordinary objects into payment touchpoints.

Namibia's embrace of UPI technology is more than just a bilateral fintech agreement—it’s a strong signal that India’s digital public infrastructure is gaining trust and traction globally. For Namibia, the partnership offers a shortcut to financial inclusion and digital empowerment. For India, it is a validation of its "Make in India, Serve the World" vision.

Moreover, by licensing its technology rather than just exporting services, India ensures that these countries retain sovereignty over their financial systems, while still benefiting from a robust, tested framework.

As UPI sets its sights on becoming a global digital payments model, partnerships like the one with Namibia show that India’s soft power is no longer limited to yoga, Bollywood, or spices. Fintech innovation is now a key pillar of India’s global engagement.

The journey of UPI—from simplifying chai-wala payments on the street corners of India to becoming the core payments rail for a sovereign African nation—is a testament to what thoughtful digital innovation can achieve when it’s shared generously with the world.

UPI is not just a success story—it's India’s digital gift to the world. And Namibia is just the beginning.