Interswitch Champions Infrastructure-Driven Fintech Growth at The Borderless Experience 2026
August 24, 2026: Interswitch Group has reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening the infrastructure needed to drive sustainable financial innovation across Africa, emphasising that the continent’s fintech revolution must be built on trusted, secure and resilient systems.
The company made this position known at The Borderless Experience 2026, organised by Condia and held in Lagos on Friday, August 21, 2026.
Speaking during a fireside conversation on the future of African fintech, Akeem Lawal, Managing Director, Payment Processing & Switching, Interswitch Purepay, stressed the importance of collaboration among fintech companies, commercial banks, infrastructure providers and regulators in creating a financial ecosystem capable of scaling while maintaining trust, compliance and resilience.
Lawal shared the stage with Kemi Okusanya, CEO, Zest, in a conversation moderated by Benjamin Dada, Founder and Publisher, Condia.
According to Lawal, fintech companies cannot be expected to independently solve every challenge confronting Africa’s rapidly evolving financial ecosystem.
“I don’t think the fintechs can solve it alone,”
he noted, highlighting the need for commercial banks and infrastructure providers to establish the compliant and transparent layers that allow fintech innovators to concentrate on developing new products and services.
For Interswitch, the principle is clear: innovation can only achieve lasting impact when supported by reliable infrastructure.
As fintech continues to reshape the way individuals and businesses access, send and receive money, Lawal noted that trusted infrastructure providers have an increasingly important role in enabling secure, compliant and resilient financial ecosystems.
He further emphasised that collaboration among innovators, established financial institutions, infrastructure providers and regulators will be critical to ensuring that Africa’s fintech transformation is not only fast-paced but also sustainable.
The discussion also examined the future of cross-border and contactless payments, with Lawal identifying trust as one of the major barriers to wider adoption.
He observed that consumers who tap their cards without entering a PIN may sometimes perceive such transactions as less secure, despite the security measures built into contactless payment systems.
Lawal’s participation at The Borderless Experience 2026 underscores Interswitch’s broader thought leadership on the future of payments and financial infrastructure across Africa, advocating for an ecosystem where innovation and infrastructure develop hand in hand.
He concluded with a message that captured the central theme of the discussion:
“The future of fintech is not simply about building revolutionary products. It is about building the infrastructure that allows that revolution to endure.”