How African fintechs are building foundational trust for scalable financial services

Africa has spent the past decade building the infrastructure to move money digitally.

The next phase is focused on making those transactions trustworthy. As cross-border payments, e-commerce, and intra-African trade gather pace, governments, payment networks, and fintech companies are investing in the systems that verify identities, protect transactions, and resolve disputes.

Ahmed Yusuf believes that the shift inspired AfrikTrust Vault.

When he conceived the platform, Yusuf focused on a challenge that payment platforms alone could not solve. As African businesses increasingly buy, sell, and invest across borders, he saw growing demand for infrastructure that helps strangers transact with confidence.

“Existing payment solutions are excellent at moving money, but they do not always solve the trust gap between strangers,” Yusuf, founder of AfrikTrust Vault, told bird story agency. “I saw an opportunity to build infrastructure focused on transaction trust, not just transaction speed.”

AfrikTrust Vault operates as an escrow platform that safeguards transactions between buyers and sellers. Payments made through licensed payment partners are held securely until agreed conditions are met, after which funds are released. The model is designed to reduce the uncertainty that often accompanies cross-border trade between parties with no prior relationship.

“The real challenge is trust,” Yusuf said. “Businesses can often find ways to send money, but they struggle to determine whether the person on the other side will fulfil their obligations. Trust affects trade volumes, customer confidence, repeat transactions and market expansion.”

This opportunity is now growing alongside Africa’s expanding payments market.

The 2025 industry estimates by the venture capital firm Oui Capital valued the continent’s cross-border payments market at US$329 billion, projecting it could exceed US$1 trillion by 2035.

According to the World Bank, remittance inflows into Africa have also risen from about US$53 billion in 2010 to roughly US$95 billion by 2024.

Indeed a Nairobi-designed digital wallet service is one of the many brands now clutching at the heels of Eswatini’s mainstream banks and telcos, proving that African expansion can be a gainful strategy for fintech startups.

Just three years after its formal launch, InstaCash – a mobile money platform developed by Kenya’s Directcore Technologies continues to break the decades-long hold of traditional banks and telecommunications providers in Eswatini’s financial sector and the wider southern African market.

The firm is now angling for a rare break in what could be another first for the rapid – growing brand.

This is after Eswatini’s financial industry body announced last year the completion of an experimentation phase testing a ‘regulated liability network’ that would be able to make and settle payments in different forms of digital money, whether issued by central banks or private sector companies, including tokenized commercial bank deposits.

The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) opened its CBDC-platform, which is based on Giesecke+Devrient’s (G+D) Filia solution, to fintechs like InstaCash, who have already started test – runs to carry out payment transactions with the digital Lilangeni via a feature phone for the first time.

Instacash has since developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for an application enabling integration of the digital Lilangeni into existing Instacash services.

CBE noted in November 2025 that with the Instacash bid, for instance, it was now possible to use the digital Lilangeni to open a wallet, check the balance, access financial services or make transfers.

“InstaCash’s initiative underlines the enormous potential that the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies opens up for payment players,” said Dr. Raoul Herborg, Managing Director of the CBDC unit at G+D.

Adding that, “It is an excellent example of a customer-centric collaboration between Central Banks and private digital currency providers that also strengthens financial inclusion by integrating CBDCs into existing financial services.”

Speaking in Nairobi while reacting to the development, Francis Adunga, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Directcore Technologies, noted that such a stride would upgrade the current Eswatini’s payments infrastructure to enable new functionality, while at the same time addressing the issue of financial inclusion.

“Financial inclusion is a common policy goal for CBDC projects, and such a development and CBDCs in general will in certain respects make it easier for regulators to fight money laundering, and key technical aspects of CBDCs will hinder some traditional illicit financial techniques. So, this is a timely innovation,” said Adunga.

Directcore Technologies is the solution innovators and integrators of the Instacash platform to G+D Filia – which is simply a token-based payment solution that allows for digital payments without an internet connection.

Yet bigger payment volumes have not eliminated friction

According to ODI Global, 84% of businesses surveyed reported experiencing system glitches during cross-border transactions, while 80% reported regularly experiencing payment delays from other African countries.

The report also found that although Nigeria processed 22 billion digital transactions in the first half of 2024, only 561 companies currently hold a globally recognised business identity, highlighting how verification and trusted digital identities remain major constraints to seamless regional commerce.

The challenge is becoming more urgent as Africa’s payment infrastructure expands. According to the March 2026 Scaling Instant Payments in Africa white paper by AfricaNenda and its partners, 25 African countries now operate domestic instant payment systems, up from 20 in 2022, while another 19 are developing their own.

The report argues that as payment rails spread across the continent, “trust is the new frontier,” warning that fraud, scams, and weak dispute-resolution systems risk undermining adoption if they are not addressed from the outset.

That is creating opportunities beyond payment rails themselves

Across social commerce platforms, online marketplaces, and regional supply chains, businesses increasingly transact with customers and suppliers they have never met. Escrow services, digital identity verification, fraud prevention, compliance technology, and dispute-resolution platforms are emerging as critical layers of financial infrastructure, complementing rather than replacing payment providers.

“We do not see ourselves as replacing banks or payment processors,” Yusuf said. “Banks, payment processors and settlement networks move money efficiently. Our focus is helping ensure that both parties can transact with greater trust and accountability.”

The shift is also being reinforced by policy

Nigeria recently enacted the National Identity Management Commission Act 2026, strengthening the National Identification Number (NIN) as the foundation for identity verification across financial services.

The reforms are expected to support customer verification, digital lending, and financial inclusion, reflecting a wider recognition that trusted digital identity is becoming a cornerstone of Africa’s digital financial ecosystem.

At the continental level, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), developed by Afreximbank in partnership with the African Union and the AfCFTA Secretariat, is expanding infrastructure that enables businesses to settle transactions in local currencies across participating markets.

According to the African Development Bank, nearly half of intra-African payments are still routed through correspondent banks outside the continent, increasing costs, settlement times, and transaction complexity.

The bank estimates that cross-border payment costs across Africa average between 7.4% and 8.4%, well above the global average and more than double the Sustainable Development Goal target of below 3%.

Governments are also broadening their view of diaspora finance

Kenya’s Diaspora Investment Strategy 2025–2030, for example, seeks to channel diaspora capital into businesses, property and other productive sectors rather than focusing solely on remittances.

“Investment requires a higher level of trust than remittances,” Yusuf said. “Diaspora investors need transparency, accountability, transaction protection and clear dispute-resolution mechanisms.”

The same demand is emerging across Africa’s fast-growing digital economy, where e-commerce, freelancing and digital services increasingly connect businesses with customers across multiple jurisdictions.

“African businesses are increasingly comfortable finding customers beyond their home countries,” Yusuf said. “What has changed is the scale and frequency of cross-border interactions. Businesses now need infrastructure that supports trust, verification, dispute management and transaction protection in addition to payment processing.”

The shift extends beyond fintech startups to the institutions underpinning Africa’s financial system.

Sector analysts believe the broader impact goes well beyond payments. As Africa builds stronger trust infrastructure, they expect it to accelerate financial inclusion and encourage greater participation in the formal economy.

Margaret Gitura, founder and chief executive of Newark Frontiers, argues that “financial inclusion is no longer simply about expanding access. It is about strengthening confidence in the institutions that provide that access.”

She added that the institutions shaping Africa’s financial future are “unlikely to compete solely on speed or convenience”, with “sustainable differentiation” increasingly coming from “institutional credibility”.

For Yusuf, the industry’s biggest misconception is that faster payments alone will unlock cross-border commerce.

“Moving money is only one part of the transaction,” he said. “Trust, verification, accountability and dispute resolution are equally important. Solving these challenges can unlock significantly more economic activity across Africa than payment speed alone.”

Additional reporting by Steve UMIDHA