At the BPC Client Conference 2026 in Cape Town this past Wednesday, bankers, payments specialists and cybersecurity experts gathered around a question that African financial institutions probably need to sit with: are they already holding the tools they need to move faster, and just not using them fully?
Jonathan Bautista, Asia-Pacific regional solution director at BPC, a Swiss-based payment technology company, made the case that modernisation does not have to mean tearing everything down and starting over. "One of the key lessons we have learnt in Asia-Pacific is that modernisation does not necessarily mean replacing an entire platform," he told TechCabal on the sidelines of the conference. His point was straightforward: getting more out of existing payment systems can help banks launch products faster, improve customer experience and enter new markets without the cost and disruption of a full platform replacement.
The spending numbers on the continent make this conversation urgent. Eight major Nigerian banks earned 514.82 billion naira, roughly $386.5 million, from electronic payments in the first nine months of 2025 alone. In 2024, six banks spent 268.7 billion naira on IT infrastructure, including core banking upgrades. That is serious money moving through systems that, according to Bautista, may have untapped capacity.
Beyond payments, banks are already stretching into new territory. Lenders including FNB, Capitec, Standard Bank and Nedbank have begun moving into mobile connectivity, signalling that the traditional boundaries of banking on the continent are shifting fast.
The question Bautista left on the table is one worth following: if the infrastructure is already there, what exactly is stopping African banks from using it better?
Originally published by TechCabal.