Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most under-banked regions on the planet. Roughly 45 percent of adults across the region still operate outside the formal financial system. For a decade, the narrative around this gap has centred on the traditional banks' inability to close it. That framing is now outdated. The real story of the last ten years is that a new generation of technology companies, telecoms, and payment networks has built the rails to reach hundreds of millions of customers the banks could not, and the next wave of growth will belong to the software teams that build on top of those rails.
Mobile money is the dominant primary account
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile money has become the primary financial account for hundreds of millions of people. M-Pesa in Kenya alone processes transaction volumes that rival entire national retail banking systems. MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Money operate across multiple markets at comparable scale. The GSMA's State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money tracks hundreds of millions of registered accounts and trillions of dollars in annual transactions across Africa.
For a product team building in this environment, the implication is foundational. A banking product that cannot interoperate with mobile money wallets is a banking product most of the addressable market cannot use. The engineering pattern is now well established: USSD flows for feature-phone users, smartphone apps with fallback to agent networks, and APIs to wallet operators that handle deposit, withdrawal, and in-wallet transfer.
Real-time, low-cost payments are arriving at national scale
The rails underneath African financial services have matured fast. Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) is live across multiple central banks, enabling instant cross-border payments in local currencies. South Africa's PayShap, launched in 2023, has pushed instant retail payments into mainstream use. Nigeria's NIP network processes real-time transfers at a scale that few comparable economies match. Kenya's Pesalink continues to expand. The Central Bank of Nigeria's regulatory sandbox, alongside sandbox programmes in Ghana, Rwanda, and Mauritius, has created conditions for innovators to launch new rails and products faster than in most mature markets.
For FinTech engineers, the practical consequence is that "domestic real-time" is now the baseline, and the interesting work is moving to cross-border, multi-currency, and FX-bundled propositions that remittance corridors have long demanded but never had the rails to support at consumer prices.
Agent networks remain the last-mile infrastructure
Digital-only distribution hits a ceiling in markets where cash circulation remains high and smartphone penetration is still climbing. The winning companies have paired digital front ends with dense agent networks that handle cash-in and cash-out. M-Pesa's agent network, the tens of thousands of MTN MoMo agents across West Africa, and the kiosk networks of players like Flutterwave and Paga are physical infrastructure that cannot be replicated by software alone.
New entrants do not need to build an agent network from scratch. They need to integrate with existing ones. The software question is reliable reconciliation, agent commission ledgers that do not drift, and fraud controls that keep agent float honest. These are unglamorous engineering problems that decide whether a FinTech scales or collapses under operational debt.
Digital lending is the fastest-growing product category
Access to credit was historically the hardest financial service to extend to the unbanked, because the credit bureau infrastructure did not exist and traditional underwriting required data the customer could not provide. The mobile money revolution solved half of this problem. A customer with two years of M-Pesa history has a behavioural credit signal that is often stronger than a payslip. A generation of lenders, from Tala and Branch in Kenya to FairMoney and Carbon in Nigeria to JUMO's partnerships with MNOs across the continent, has turned those signals into consumer and SME credit at scale.
The engineering challenge is risk model maintenance, responsible lending practices, and regulatory cooperation. Regulators across the continent have tightened digital lending rules over the last three years in response to predatory pricing and aggressive collection practices. The players building for the long term are the ones who invested early in transparent pricing, clear repayment terms, and reconciliation with local consumer protection frameworks.
Blockchain and stablecoins have found practical use cases
The African context has surfaced the most practical use cases for blockchain infrastructure anywhere in the world. Stablecoins, particularly USDC and USDT, have become meaningful cross-border settlement rails for remittances and B2B payments, especially into and out of countries where traditional correspondent banking is expensive or unreliable. Companies like Yellow Card and the stablecoin rails inside several pan-African payment platforms are moving real volume in markets where FX access is constrained.
The regulatory picture is evolving. Central banks across the region are actively exploring CBDCs, with Nigeria's eNaira live since 2021 and the South African Reserve Bank running advanced wholesale CBDC pilots under Project Khokha. The regulatory signal is clear: digital assets will have a legitimate place in the financial stack, but that place will be defined by supervisory standards, not by the early speculative cycles, with frameworks broadly aligning to the EU's MiCA rules.
What this means for teams building in the sector
Three principles separate the companies that are compounding from those that are churning through capital.
- Build for the network, not against it. The product that wins in African markets integrates seamlessly with mobile money wallets, agent networks, and national real-time rails. It does not try to replace them.
- Engineer for intermittent connectivity and device diversity. A meaningful slice of the user base still operates on feature phones, low-bandwidth data, and occasional offline periods. A product that assumes always-on fibre loses half its market before launch.
- Treat regulatory engagement as a first-class function. Central banks across the continent have matured quickly. The companies that engage early, participate in sandbox programmes, and contribute to rule-making build durable positions. The companies that try to grow first and ask permission later increasingly do not survive the second regulatory review.
For more on the broader inclusion thesis, see our piece on the future of banks and financial democratisation, and our conversation with RMB on African FinTech engineering in the SovTech-RMB podcast.
How Scrums.com partners with African FinTechs and banks
Scrums.com is headquartered in South Africa and has delivered banking, payments, and FinTech software for African clients for over a decade. Our banking software development services span mobile money integrations, real-time payment rails, digital lending platforms, and the core engineering work behind pan-African FinTech platforms. We combine local market depth with the regulated engineering discipline required to ship software that banks, central banks, and customers can rely on.
If you are building for African financial services and want a partner that has been doing this since before the mobile money wave, start a project with us.
FAQ
What percentage of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are still unbanked?
Roughly 45 percent of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa remain outside the formal banking system, although many of them now hold mobile money accounts that function as their primary financial relationship. The figure tracks the World Bank's Global Findex dataset.
What role does mobile money play in African financial inclusion?
Mobile money is now the primary financial account for hundreds of millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa. Platforms like M-Pesa, MTN Mobile Money, and Airtel Money process transaction volumes that rival entire national retail banking systems and serve as the foundation for digital lending, insurance, and savings products.
What payment rails should a FinTech integrate with in Africa?
At minimum, leading mobile money wallets in target markets, national real-time rails such as PayShap in South Africa, NIP in Nigeria, Pesalink in Kenya, and ideally PAPSS for cross-border flows. Integration with agent networks for cash-in and cash-out remains essential in most markets.
How have African regulators responded to digital lending growth?
Regulators across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and other markets have tightened rules on digital lending since 2022, particularly around pricing transparency, data usage, and collection practices. Lenders that invested early in responsible lending frameworks and regulatory engagement have adapted better than those that did not.
Are stablecoins used for real payments in Africa?
Yes. Stablecoins, particularly USDC and USDT, have become meaningful rails for cross-border remittances and B2B payments, especially in markets where FX access is constrained. Regulatory treatment varies by country and is tightening under frameworks inspired by the EU's MiCA rules.
