#BizTrends2020: Disrupting legacy African payments – going digital

A country’s payments system is probably not the first thing we think of when we think about the challenge of economic development. But payments are key to the bottom-up economic growth urgently needed across Africa.

Diverse economic activity at the bottom percolates up creating jobs, opportunity and perhaps the only pathway out of poverty for the majority. But because that majority lives in the cash economy, the opportunity to invest a little money in something to get ahead is limited.

Providing a seamless way to pay a SME that provides insight into the business is perhaps the only real way for banks to see SMEs as a market worth investing in. Understand a business’s cashflow and you understand the business.