South Africa is one of Africa’s fastest-growing fintech hotbeds, and several recent regulatory developments are being discussed as the country’s fintech industry becomes more mainstream. As one of the few African countries with a relatively large banked population and boasting some of the highest numbers on the continent for mobile phone penetration (mostly smartphones), South Africa presents the ideal environment for fintech start-ups and ventures to take root.
South Africa also benefits from a robust financial services and banking industry, but one that has been slow in adopting new technologies and modernising legacy banking tech. This has led to many opportunities for fintech use cases, such as those in open banking. These services operate on top of current bank infrastructure but provide more nimble payment channels.
