Alignment of Payment Initiatives in Africa – Towards Seamless Interoperability

This boutique event brings together central bankers, regulators, FSIs and other industry experts to deliberate and share experiences on different aspects of the broader payments systems framework and transaction space.

The 16-member states that form the SADC region are continuously striving for both continental and inter-continental integration to improve socio-economic growth through deeper cooperation, good governance and the promotion of peace. Crucial to the realisation of these goals is greater alignment and interoperability of the different banking systems across the 16 countries to achieve a more standardised payment framework. The diversity in the region however has also led to different levels of technical and economic sophistication, where a key dilemma persists relative to financial inclusion for the many un/underbanked people in the region. What are the new building blocks for this integration? How can the SADC jurisdictions align the governance and legislation and what steps are needed to bridge this gap?

Four key areas will be the focus of this year’s inaugural GPS event and several deep-diving sessions will ensure high level debate in these topics:

• Interpreting the SADC dream
• Exploring the dilemmas
• Calibrating the distance
• Understanding the direction

The inaugural SADC chapter of Global Payment Summit will bring together the key players in all Sub Sahara Africa (SSA) instrumental in the quest for this enhanced payments and banking ecosystem and will provide a focus on how these objectives can be realised. The event will draw on best practices from other regions including regulatory issues, as well as the positive benefits to be gleaned from the huge FinTech advances and innovation both regionally and internationally. We will look at the latest national developments in e-payments and wallets as well as the larger, cross-border regional platforms that are transforming the African payments landscape. Also in focus will be the cashless initiatives across the region enabling the unbanked and geographically remote to transact seamlessly.