Somewhere between the glossy fintech keynotes and the venture capital pitch decks, Africa's real financial infrastructure story has been unfolding quietly. A traveller flying from Lagos to Luanda still finds their card declined at the visa counter. Sending money between neighbouring North and West African countries still takes days and passes through offshore clearing banks. And across much of the continent, cash remains king in everyday retail. The apps look good. The plumbing, though, is still being laid.
That is the world Hanae Ben Driss works in. As Managing Director of Switch Al-Maghrib, Morocco's national payment switch, she sits at the intersection of commercial banks, non-bank financial institutions, and the central bank. The institution has been operating in that engine room for nearly three decades, invisible to consumers but essential to everyone who moves money in Morocco. "We are part of the less visible but very important components of the value chain," she says. "Our work is essential to making the entire ecosystem function."
Her perspective on what development institutions often call Africa's payment "fragmentation" is refreshingly contrarian. Where others see separate national payment rails as a policy failure, Ben Driss sees them as a necessary first step. National infrastructure, she argues, is not the obstacle to continental integration. It is the foundation for it.
The Switch Al-Maghrib chief also makes the case that wallets, not cards, are the right vehicle for cross-border scale on the continent. And she hints at something bigger: plans for an association of African national switches that could quietly rewire how money moves across borders. The consumer apps may have the audience, but the people building the pipes are starting to compare notes.
Originally published by TechCabal.