FinTech Companies And The Need To Reposition Africa’s Offline And Digital Payments

The Coronavirus pandemic left ‘a bitter taste in the mouth’ as it relates to human existence but for the negatives, it paved the way for a comprehensive technological adoption that would push digital payments platforms to reach millions of users in the world and Africa in particular. These technological adoptions heralded the adoption of contactless means to conduct transactions.

Fintech, a combination of terms, “finance” and “technology” is simply financial technology that refers to any business that uses technology to enhance or automate financial services and processes; it is the technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services.

The Fintech industry is thus an emerging industry that consisted of various companies and institutions that uses technology to improve activities in finance, encompassing an industry that serves the interests of both consumers and businesses in multiple ways.

Africa has now latched on the fintech trend to improve on its payment systems  as what can earlier be seen as a luxury for making payments now has become a necessity for the sustainability of Africa’s financial sector, more specifically, the continent’s technological, financial sector.

The African continent has since the year 2010 taken a centre stage in the payments space mobilized by digital money services, and with the pandemic changing digital innovations’ tides, the adoption of digital payments rose.

The continent’s romance of digital payments, as can be seen in many industries, demographics, and payment services, and some companies will project innovations in the continent, with the growth spread across more than 35 African countries. 

The continent’s strength is the acceleration of digital payments modernization on a global, regional, and local scale to bring about an incorporated synergized connection in the continent’s major countries, like Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and much more. 

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) Association had earlier this year released a report indicating a 43 percent increase of mobile money accounts, a growth of 1.2 billion users from African regions. The growth rate is an indication of the market’s capacity in obtaining offline payments is much more monumental than that of online payments, effectively structuring the path for upcoming plans to empower the continent’s offline payments while synchronizing focus on emboldening online payment services. 

The GSMA report also pointed out that almost 44 million enterprises of all sizes and influences in the sub-Saharan region are investing their power to provide jobs needed to serve Africa’s economy and growth, with most of these firms offering to provide services or hire employees to work on offline or cash payments.

Fintech companies are thus better positioned to steer Africa’s digital payments ecosystem, with they seeking out new ventures in the continent by leveraging collaborations with the various companies in the sector, like banks, telecom operators, and well-known enterprises, to pilot the accession of the FinTech sector in Africa.