When executives from banks, fintechs, and investment firms gathered in Nairobi earlier this month, the conversation circled a familiar problem for Africa’s financial sector: moving money across borders remains harder than it should be.
The closed-door Ecosystem Mixer, hosted by global treasury and payments infrastructure company Cede, brought together senior leaders to examine why cross-border payments across African markets continue to face friction and what it will take to build payment rails that work seamlessly across currencies, countries, and regulatory regimes.
Held on December 5, 2025, under the theme Seamless Africa: Building uninterruptible payment rails, the forum convened executives from banking, fintech, and investment institutions including Africa Climate Ventures, Payaza, Choice Microfinance Bank, and Afreximbank East Africa. The focus was practical rather than theoretical: how infrastructure, regulation, and collaboration intersect in real payment flows.
For Cede, the choice of Kenya was deliberate. The country has emerged as a regional testing ground for digital financial products, driven by high adoption rates and a mature fintech ecosystem. Nairobi’s position as an East African financial hub made it a fitting location to host a discussion on interoperability and scale.
Speaking on the company’s long-term direction, Akin Afolabi, CEO and co-founder of Cede, said the firm’s infrastructure vision is beginning to take clearer shape as integrations deepen across markets.
“We started with a vision that looked almost too large to grasp,” Afolabi said. “What we are building is becoming clearer. We now have an infrastructure layer that lets money move across local currencies through connections with banks, switches, and fintech providers.”
Discussions during the session highlighted the technical foundations required for smoother cross-border payments. Panelists pointed to intelligent transaction routing, AI-driven liquidity management, stronger interoperability between systems, and faster settlement as critical building blocks. Without reliability at every touchpoint, they noted, adoption of cross-border digital payments will remain limited.
Regulation emerged as one of the most persistent constraints. Fragmented compliance frameworks across African countries continue to slow intra-African trade and payments, even as demand for cross-border services grows. Participants argued that closer alignment between regulators, financial institutions, and technology providers is essential to reduce friction while preserving system integrity.
Moderating the conversation, Dapo Olatinsu, COO and co-founder of Cede, said the discussions reinforced a point many operators already understand but struggle to execute at scale.
“The gaps in cross-border payments are well understood,” Olatinsu said. “What is needed is sustained collaboration between technology builders, banks, and regulators. Kenya plays a central role in that conversation.”
Cede also used the Nairobi gathering to introduce Voye, its multi-currency remittance product. Designed to support fast and transparent transfers across key corridors, including East Africa, Voye will sit on top of Cede’s broader infrastructure stack, offering digital wallets and cross-border settlements supported by the company’s compliance framework.
According to Cede, insights from the Nairobi Ecosystem Mixer will shape its next phase of engagement as it prepares to roll out Voye and deepen partnerships across East Africa. The company plans to host similar ecosystem engagements in other markets as it works toward building more resilient and interoperable payment systems across the continent.
For Africa’s payments sector, the challenge is no longer identifying the problem. The harder task is aligning technology, policy, and partnerships well enough to make seamless cross-border payments the default rather than the exception.
