Firm Urges Alignment Between Regulators, Payment Operators

Payments advisory firm, Intreensic, said the next phase of Africa’s digital finance growth will hinge on closer alignment between regulators and operators on compliance, infrastructure, and operational demands.

The firm said the next phase of growth across Africa’s payments ecosystem will depend less on expansion speed alone and more on how effectively regulators, financial institutions, fintech companies, and infrastructure providers align around sustainable operational realities.

The commentary comes amid ongoing reforms across Nigeria’s financial system, including recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) measures affecting foreign exchange transactions, remittance settlements, transaction monitoring, and point-of-sale (POS) operations. Similar regulatory shifts are also emerging across several African markets as authorities increase focus on consumer protection, financial system integrity, cross-border transactions, and digital finance oversight.

Despite tighter scrutiny across the sector, Africa’s digital payments ecosystem continues to expand rapidly.

According to AVCA’s 2025 Venture Capital in Africa Report, total ecosystem funding reached $3.9 billion across 506 deals, with fintech and payments infrastructure remaining among the continent’s most active investment categories. In Nigeria, electronic payment transactions rose to N1.07 quadrillion in 2024, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), underscoring the growing scale and centrality of digital payments within the economy.

Speaking on the evolving landscape, the founder of Intreensic, Nkebet Mesele, said the industry is entering a phase where operational discipline and ecosystem coordination will become increasingly important alongside innovation.

“We are seeing stronger regulatory focus across digital finance, which is important for long-term ecosystem stability and trust. At the same time, operators across the ecosystem are managing growing expectations around compliance, infrastructure resilience, fraud management, and customer experience. Sustainable growth will depend on how effectively the industry aligns policy objectives with operational and commercial realities,” Mesele said.

Mesele added that conversations around Africa’s payments growth must increasingly move beyond adoption and expansion metrics alone.

“For many years, much of the ecosystem conversation centred on scale and growth. What is becoming equally important now is sustainability, how businesses build resilient operating structures, strengthen execution capability, and scale responsibly within increasingly sophisticated regulatory environments,” she said.

According to Intreensic, stronger engagement between regulators and operators will remain critical as digital payments become more embedded across commerce, banking, remittances, and financial inclusion initiatives across the continent.

The firm added that future ecosystem leaders will likely be defined not only by growth, but by their ability to build resilient infrastructure, maintain operational stability, adapt to evolving regulation, and scale sustainably across African markets.