Africa’s fast-growing fintech industry must focus on building reliable and resilient payment infrastructure if it wants to maintain customers’ trust and achieve sustainable growth, the Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Belema Fintech, Michael Adesola, has said.
Adesola made the statement at the Nigerian Fintech Forum, where he urged companies and other stakeholders in Africa’s financial technology ecosystem to look beyond rising user numbers and transaction volumes.
He said the next stage of Africa’s fintech development would depend largely on the infrastructure supporting digital financial services.
According to him, Africa does not have a shortage of fintech companies or digital financial products. Instead, the bigger challenge is ensuring that the systems behind those services remain dependable, particularly when transaction volumes increase or networks come under pressure.
“Africa doesn’t have a fintech shortage. What we may have is a resilience shortage,” Adesola said, stressing that the key question should no longer be how quickly fintech companies can grow, but whether the infrastructure supporting that growth can be trusted.
The rapid adoption of digital payments across Africa has placed greater pressure on banks, payment processors, switches and other technology providers. Millions of customers now depend on these systems to transfer money, pay for goods and services and access financial products.
Adesola identified failed or delayed transactions as one of the biggest threats to confidence in digital finance.
He explained that customers are not concerned about which company or part of the payment chain caused a failed transaction. Whether the problem occurs at a bank, payment processor, switching company or service provider, the customer simply sees the result as a failed promise.
He said a payment should represent more than a digital notification on a customer’s phone. It should mean that money has successfully reached its intended destination.
“Every payment is more than a transaction; it is an expectation,” he said, noting that repeated failures can quickly damage confidence in digital financial services.
To prevent this, Adesola called on fintech companies and infrastructure providers to test their systems before exposing them to large-scale demand. He also encouraged businesses to introduce backup systems, strengthen cybersecurity and improve connections between different parts of the financial ecosystem.
He stressed that interoperability is particularly important because digital payments often involve several institutions before a transaction is completed.
Adesola also called for greater cooperation among financial technology companies. While competition is necessary for innovation, he said industry players must collaborate on issues that affect the stability of the broader financial system.
He argued that the success of fintech should not be measured only by the quality of mobile applications or the number of people using them. Behind every digital payment platform are payment rails, processing systems, switching infrastructure, identity services, application programming interfaces, cybersecurity tools and connectivity networks.
“These systems determine whether the promises made by fintech applications can actually be delivered,” he said.
The executive noted that even the most attractive digital application cannot make up for infrastructure that breaks down when customers need it most.
The focus on reliable payment infrastructure is closely connected to the operations of Belema Fintech, a Central Bank of Nigeria-licensed switching and processing company that provides services to financial institutions, merchants and fintech businesses.
Its services include instant transfer processing, card payments, online collections and direct debit solutions.
Adesola said resilience, security and interoperability should be treated as basic requirements for payment infrastructure rather than additional features.
As Africa’s fintech market continues to expand, he said the industry must redefine what success means.
According to him, the companies that succeed in the next phase may not necessarily be those with the largest user bases or most advanced applications, but those that can consistently deliver secure, reliable and timely financial services.
For customers, the expectation remains straightforward: when a payment is confirmed, the money should actually move.
