Seamless Southern Africa 2025, held in Johannesburg, brought together over 6,000 professionals from the banking, fintech, retail, and e-commerce sectors. The energy in the air confirmed the feeling that Africa isn’t just following global digital commerce trends, but is moving ahead at its own lively pace, showing that payments can adapt and thrive in fast-changing, unpredictable markets.
For us at Cross Switch, the event was one of those moments that make you step back and remember that, at a macro level, payments are central to the global economy. In contrast, at the micro level, payments are absolutely central to helping businesses get off the ground, find their footing, and reach new markets in the region. The conference brought the importance of payment orchestration to the fore, reminding us what’s at stake as we continue to build platforms that actually work for real businesses as they chase growth.
The noticeable rise of smarter infrastructure
It became clear at Seamless just how much AI and automation are changing payment operations. It’s fast becoming a cliché that AI is penetrating every industry, and this observation is repeated because it is true. Not more so than in the banking and fintech world, where organisations are moving from patchwork fixes to smarter, more integrated systems. These trends mirror our own approach at Cross Switch – having one orchestration layer so businesses can plug into different rails, handle compliance, and add new features without having to start from scratch.
Having developed a payment orchestration platform tailored to the realities of Southern Africa and other emerging markets, with many more advances still to come, we recognise that it’s not simply about the technology; it’s about people, trust, and understanding what works on the ground.
Inclusion calls for local connectivity
Another common theme at the event was financial inclusion. Real-time payments, open banking, and mobile access are helping more people get into digital finance. There is an understanding that technology alone won’t solve it. Countries in the region face many shared and some distinct challenges that call for local solutions.
At Cross Switch, we create payment fabrics that shapeshift according to local stresses. Our platform links up local payment methods and rails, so businesses have a smoother way to reach people wherever they are. The idea is that merchants and PSPs don’t have to build something from scratch every time they enter a new market. Inclusion calls for orchestration, and that’s what we continue to work at.
Borderless cross-border trade, anyone?
Many attendees were excited about regional integration and cross-border trade. It’s often said, and was evident among the presentations, that huge opportunities exist if Africa can connect at scale. One recurring hurdle to this vision is that the patchwork of settlement systems makes interoperability at scale hard to achieve. Businesses want to grow regionally, and payments are a way to enable that borderless vision.
To meet such a challenge, our single API for cross-border payments is meant to give merchants and PSPs the clarity and control they need to work across regional markets. Seamless may have focused on Southern Africa, but many organisations have continental ambitions, and they could do with payment systems that allow them to get on with growing their businesses.
Partnerships drive ecosystems
Delegates agreed that few things work without collaboration. Banks, PSPs, merchants, fintechs, and even regulators all have to pull together to grease the wheels of trade.
That belief is baked into what we do at Cross Switch and has led us to sometimes teaming up with banks and local players in different capacities, but always aiming to build infrastructure that businesses can scale with.
Trust and compliance remain key
Trust is the foundation for all this digital growth. All players want to move fast, but not at the expense of security or compliance. At Cross Switch, we prioritise compliance and security, giving them the attention they deserve. Every solution we roll out, whether it’s in Africa or Latin America, is built with local rules and protections in mind. We want to make payments across growing regions as ‘seamless’ as they can be. This involves making them more inclusive, more reliable, and more scalable for everyone.
Simplifying payments for emerging markets
To distil a key message from the conference: payments have to work, for everyone, every time. In line with that, we are on a mission to build and improve a payment platform for the wonderful complexity of emerging markets. Our goal is to simplify payments while also building genuine relationships founded on trust, service, and local care.
Looking ahead
Seamless Southern Africa 2025 confirmed what we all knew: that payments are changing fast. Those who will emerge as leaders in this space are the ones who can keep things clear, blend innovation with trust, and balance local realities with ambitious goals shaped by on-the-ground experience.
For us at Cross Switch, that future is already here as we help orchestrate payments in Southern Africa and beyond, making it easier for businesses to grow and thrive in the digital world.