On the sidelines of the Africa Forward Summit, an overhaul of the international financial infrastructure emerged as one of the key rails that will shape Africa’s economic future. Here’s the catch: African economies are expected to spend nearly $90 billion on external debt payments in 2026 alone. With this comes a need to move with speed to put this architecture in place. Against this backdrop, much of the work lies in reducing friction across every dollar of trade and capital movement.
Cross-border payments in Africa are often treated as just another fintech story about speed, convenience, or digital innovation. However, the reality is far more structural. It is about infrastructure. African businesses continue to face high transaction costs, limited access to liquidity, unstable currency markets, and dependence on external correspondent banking systems that neither reflect the realities of intra-African commerce nor have evolved alongside it. Every delay in settlement, every unnecessary FX conversion, and every layer of intermediary cost weakens the efficiency of African trade at a time when fiscal pressure across the continent continues to intensify. The reality is that these frictions can only be reduced by strengthening Africa’s ability to retain value within its own economies, deepen regional trade, and build more resilient financial systems.
This means developing infrastructure that enables the free flow of capital across businesses regardless of geography, allows businesses to trade more directly, and reduces reliance on costly external systems. This is, in essence, the gap that Verto aims to fill. It is part of the infrastructure that can drive African economic transformation. For a long time, African trade has operated within systems that introduce disproportionate costs into even the most routine transactions. A payment between two African markets often has to pass through offshore banking networks, incur multiple currency conversions, and depend on liquidity structures outside the continent itself. This is both inefficient and costly. For SMEs, these inefficiencies often translate into constrained growth and missed opportunities. For larger businesses, they create increased financial complexity and higher operating costs.
Ultimately, the focus of Africa’s financial future needs to move beyond aid, debt restructuring, and institutional reform in isolation. There is a need to develop financial rails and infrastructure that reflect the realities of African businesses. The full potential of agreements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can only be realised if businesses are able to transact seamlessly across jurisdictions and currencies. In this context, reducing payment friction becomes an enabler of industrialisation and regional growth. By simplifying cross-border payments, improving access to foreign exchange liquidity, and reducing dependence on intermediary systems, Verto helps businesses operate with greater speed, predictability, and financial control. It is important to note that this is not about replacing traditional financial institutions. It is about rethinking the infrastructure that allows businesses across Africa to trade more efficiently with one another and with the world. The future of African growth will depend largely on the continent’s ability to reduce the structural friction embedded within its financial systems. Companies like Verto that are addressing these challenges are not simply building fintech products; they are building the operating infrastructure for a more connected African economy.
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