31 Mar Africa is Becoming a Lego Set of Financial Systems - The Winners Will Be Those Who Configure and Productise Them To Meet, Anticipate And Create Customer Needs and Demand
Whilst researching the future of online payments across Africa our team came to the conclusion that there is a consistent vertical and horizontal blurring of the lines in the eCommerce and fintech ecosystem. Let's take a look and give you insight into a few ways we are observing this happening. African courier systems are moving into the eCommerce business like DHL eCommerce which makes sense as logistics and delivery of goods is one of the biggest challenges. African MNO’s entering the eCommerce space like Safaricom which also makes sense. They are the dominant payment method in Kenya and have customers at the end of the line, so they are in complete control over comms and payment. Opera browser now owned by a Chinese consortium has ventured into a number of verticals seemingly successfully including Ofood, Oride, Opay, Okash loans and crypto purchase and storage in line with the Chinese Wechat and Alipay one-stop-shop philosophy. Banks across Africa are providing mobile money and payment gateway services. MNO’s are providing mobile monies, microloans and payment gateway services. Crypto and digital systems are providing wallets (Dash), cross border (XRP), exchange capabilities. Exchanges like Luno, Binance, Huobi, Xago.io and Coindirect are providing an assortment of bank-like services including transfers, loans, wallets, remittances, and credit cards for spending crypto. Forex providers like Exchange4Free are venturing into online payment collection services for their forex customers. Remittance companies like MSF are developing payment collection services for merchants. Card schemes are teaming up with mobile money providers to enable virtual card capability for all their mobile wallet holders. As one of my good friends and business partners used to say "It's one big lego set". A lattice network of interoperable financial capability which is connected and shareable by all participants. The job these days is to configure and productise them in a way that meets, anticipates and creates target customer needs and demand. If you are and eCommerce company looking to work with experts on online payment at the checkout across Africa, click here to get in touch with us. Our services include:
