Africa's payment systems are faster than its currencies
The pipes for instant cross-border transfers now exist, a payments executive argues. What is missing is enough local currency at the other end.
Nairobi — Africa has built the technology to send money across its borders instantly. The harder problem, according to the head of one payments company, is having enough of the right currency waiting at the destination.
Raj Kamal, founder and chief executive of TransFi, made the argument in an interview published by Daily Maverick. His summary was that technology has got ahead of liquidity.
The example
Take a payment from Nigeria to Tanzania through the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, the network built to let African banks settle with each other in local currencies. Whether it arrives in real time, Mr Kamal says, depends on whether banks and central banks can supply Tanzanian shillings for the payout at that moment.
Size matters too. Moving $1 million through a corridor is a different task from moving tens of millions, when spreads widen and liquidity runs short.
The background numbers
- The settlement system and Kenya's Pesalink said in February that more than 80 Pesalink participants were connected to more than 160 banks on the network.
- The mobile industry body GSMA says mobile money handled more than $2.1 trillion worldwide in 2025, and that Africa outside the north accounted for more than two-thirds of the growth in registered accounts.
- The World Bank puts the average cost of sending remittances at about 6% globally, with Africa the most expensive region.
Where stablecoins come in
TransFi, founded in 2022, uses stablecoins alongside local payment networks. It says it covers more than 70 countries and expects to handle about $5 billion this financial year, about a tenth of it in Africa, where it operates in countries including Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Angola.
Mr Kamal argues that stablecoins can help where two currencies are rarely traded directly. The article also cites the Bank for International Settlements, which says the use of stablecoins for real-economy payments remains modest and that their performance across borders varies once fees and conversion costs are counted.
He said he had been surprised by two things in Africa: the volume of payments to freelancers working in technology, and the size of business payments between Africa and China. He does not think the continent is lagging.
This report is based on an interview by Bonface Orucho in Daily Maverick.
