Fintechs, banks partnership key to enhance cross-border payment — AZA Finance

THE Regional Head of Africa Partnership for AZA Finance, Nana Yaw Owusu Banahene, has called for a strong partnership among Fintechs and banks to help reduce the high cost of cross-border payments.

This will help to make regional trade more accessible and profitable.

He said the continent's diverse financial landscape, coupled with some banking infrastructure gap in many regions, has created obstacles for seamless cross-border transactions.

Speaking at the 2nd Fintech roundtable discussion in Accra, Mr Banahene explained that Fintechs brought innovation and agility by offering digital solutions that could bridge the gap and provide efficient cross-border payment services.

However, they often lack the regulatory experience and reach of established banks, and therefore by working together, fintechs can leverage the banks' regulatory knowledge and networks to navigate complex cross-border payment regulations, ensuring compliance and trust in cross-border transactions.

 
Commitment

“We are committed to collaborating keenly with banks and fintechs across the markets in Africa and working with different regulatory bodies to bring the dream of seamless border payment to life,” he said.

The event, organised by AZA Finance, brought together businesses and financial institutions to network and discuss the trends and challenges facing businesses in relation to cross-border payment in Africa.

Mr Banahene expressed the belief that easier access to affordable cross-border payment methods could attract foreign direct investment which would lead to job creation and economic development in the country.

“By leveraging cutting edge technology with our proprietary technology in our flagship products, AZA Finance is able to significantly lower the cost and increase the speed of business payments to, from and across African markets.

Our partners utilise our hybrid financial infrastructure and deep local knowledge to manage liquidity and send payments to dozens of bank networks, mobile money operators and payments aggregators across Africa,” he stated.

The Head of Sales for AZA Finance in the UK, EU, US, Sukhi Srivatson, said transferring money on the continent through third party currencies like the US dollar increased the cost of businesses.

“However, we have put in place technologies and products around direct intra Africa flows which we really want to focus on to support the ecosystem to grow.

We do not use the US dollar for those intra Africa transactions. So if you want to do transactions between Ghana and Nigeria the Ghana cedi and Nigerian naira are the only two currencies involved and we are not going to pass it on to the US dollar to increase cost and time,” she added.