Lasbery Oludimu, VP of Operations and MD of Yellow Card Nigeria
Africa shares key characteristics with other dynamic emerging markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia, including rapid population growth, accelerating digital adoption and a surging demand for financial inclusion, making it a compelling frontier for fintech expansion.
The continent provides three main advantages for fintech: a large mobile-first market, resilient and driven talent, and significant infrastructure gaps that present opportunities for innovative solutions to real problems.
Unlike saturated markets where most ideas have been tried, Africa invites fresh thinking. You see a gap, rally skilled people, and deliver to a market eager to adopt. We have engineers, salespeople, and entrepreneurs with grit; people who have built resilience through necessity.
Doing business in Africa is challenging and requires a deep understanding of cultural, regulatory, and economic factors. This is why it is important to have local teams on the ground to navigate these complexities and drive growth.
Tailoring solutions to pain points
Many African fintechs have gained valuable experience globally, identifying pain points and creating tailored solutions. Because many of the challenges in Africa resemble those in emerging markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia, a fintech’s refined African playbook is often relevant beyond the continent.
But these fintechs are not merely copy-pasting; they are adapting, as they recognise the differences across markets and actively tweak their strategies to fit local contexts. Their expansion is thus based on an approach that is grounded in African insights, but flexible enough to scale globally.
The continent’s mobile-first culture has been central to many African fintechs’ product design and strategy. It has shaped how they deliver stablecoin services, prioritising accessibility, speed and mobile-native experiences that meet users where they are.
However, while poor network infrastructure in rural areas can affect stablecoin adoption, the impact on fintechs is generally limited, as most tend to focus on serving businesses, which are mostly located in cities with stronger connectivity.
Improved connectivity would boost adoption
While retail users in rural areas face challenges, fintechs’ core operations are not typically heavily reliant on them. If partners like PayPal seek to reach these underserved users, weak infrastructure may hinder progress, so enhancing rural connectivity would increase adoption and help fulfil fintechs’ mission of providing financial access to all.
One of the biggest lessons that global fintechs can learn from African consumers is to focus on solving real problems with the right market fit. Innovation without demand leads to slow growth and missed expectations.
Another key lesson is to diversify, because relying on one market is risky and regulatory shifts can wipe out customer bases overnight. This has happened in Nigeria, where some exchanges collapsed due to overconcentration.
Rise of stablecoin use cases
Currently, the biggest African fintech trend is the rise of stablecoin use cases. For many, this is central as the biggest portion of their business interacts with stablecoins. This creates confidence for fintechs that they are playing in the right space.
The market is waking up to the fact that stablecoins are not just a buzzword, but are solving real problems. That is what drives innovation – finding new ways to show how this technology fills critical gaps.
Just like every CEO now asks, “What’s our AI strategy?”, fintechs and financial institutions are entering a phase where every product, innovation, or institutional leader will ask, “What’s
our stablecoin strategy?” Because the pain points are clear, and stablecoins are proving they can solve them.
African fintechs’ stablecoin model and partnerships could well influence global fintech or cross-border payment standards because they bring deep market knowledge from regions that global partners often do not fully understand.
Share experience to help partners
African fintechs know how users interact with mobile money, cards, and banking services. By sharing that experience, they can help global partners like Visa build solutions that are locally relevant and fit for purpose.
Fintech startups using stablecoins to expand across Africa must understand the regulatory landscape. Many of these companies lead regulatory conversations across the continent, and –in markets where frameworks are still evolving – they actively support regulators, sharing data, insights, and best practices from other jurisdictions. This positions them and their partners as collaborators, not disruptors.
Ultimately, fintechs must choose the right partners, know the market, understand what people need, and align their innovation with real demand. That is how you define your customer and build something that lasts.
ENDS
