00:05hello and welcome to business africa i'm your host aflake wingloid the top stories this week
00:11expat at moonshot 2026 in lagos call for harmonized regulations and seamless digital payments
00:18to boost intra-african trade
00:22as silicon valley pulls back homegrown startups are stepping up to shape the continent's digital
00:28future the latest abraham index reveals a widening gap between economic growth and political stability
00:37across africa
00:41intra-african trade accounts for less than 17 percent of total trade compared to over 60 percent in europe
00:48despite the afcfts promise of a 3.4 trillion dollar market regulatory barriers and costly payments
00:55continue to hold businesses back at moonshot 2026 in lagos expat called for urgent reforms
01:03scaling across borders remains an expensive obstacle course high currency conversion fees
01:11and stripping up to 10 percent through third-party clearing are compounded by tech systems that don't
01:17talk to each other forcing businesses to re-verify customer data in every new market the data interoperability
01:26layer right so that we are able to move customers financial history from one market into another
01:31seamlessly so that people will be able to access tools that allow them help their businesses and personal
01:37lives with ease
01:38yet data and tech alone can't solve the problem at the heart of the crisis is a regulatory quagmire
01:48companies mystery register secure licenses and comply with wildly different laws across nearly each of the
01:57african continents 54 countries so things such as an aligned regulatory system making sure that
02:07people are able to trade cross-border you know just taking into cognizance the issues around inclusivity
02:15so access markets that don't necessarily have what it takes to make those kinds of cross-border payments
02:24to scale successfully under the new protocol businesses need seamless payments unified digital ids and
02:32interoperable settlement systems like paps harmonizing policy with financial tech is the only way to turn 54
02:40separate markets into one
02:45to discuss what it will take to make cross-border business easier i'm joined by aditola onoyemi
02:51chairman of nobase a platform that automates business expansion across markets welcome to the show
02:58aditola tell us why do businesses still face regulatory and currency barriers when trading across
03:04borders the truth today is that treaties are signing capitals negotiators sit around the table
03:09and have all those beautiful negotiations but in actual fact the trade happens at borders it happens
03:14at ports it happens at banks and what happens oftentimes is that traders and bankers and all those folks
03:21eat the road to try to make this agreement or these policies work and oftentimes that's where they eat
03:25the roadblocks so today the gap of phone times is a policy and an execution gap and the reason it's
03:31simple to range african trade is about 15 it's um africa's trade on like places like asia or like
03:37europe where you have 60 and the real reason half of the times is you need to have the trade
03:43routes for
03:44the trade agreements to become better but on the same time you need to have the trade agreements for
03:49the traders to become better how can technology make it easier and less costly for companies who want
03:54to enter the african new markets today you have to actually almost register a company in every african
04:00country to business in every african country the reason is simply you need bank accounts and you
04:04cannot get bank accounts without having a registered company right and then you need to then figure out
04:09the parts and so and each of those company registration or company process are different across different
04:15markets each compliance and regulatory are just different across different markets so the question i
04:19often times is this what would it look like if we designed a system where i can have one single
04:23incorporation one single set of documents and i can show up in different markets with that same
04:27and it gets recognized or if we can even just do it even a step lower than that where we
04:31just have
04:32standardized documentation that's required across all the markets today there are cases where you
04:36actually have to go back to some capitals or some embassies or some capitals to translate documents and
04:41have them authenticated by the embassies for you to do business in some countries those are hard
04:45frictions and so today i'll say total of the friction is actually just paperwork that exists
04:49tell us how can digital payment platforms help reduce foreign exchange costs and speed up
04:56um transactions so the question is this rather than try to design this whole thing of moving money
05:04through foreign lenders should we be trying to build bridges between the different local systems that
05:10exist nebs impassal why don't we just build bridges i think paps is trying to do that to ensure we
05:14can do
05:15local settlements in there but i think that they need to have a bigger tent not just central banks
05:19you need a bigger tent that includes the fintech players almost like what we do with nibs in
05:22enjoy right where you got all the bankers the players all of them to be part of the arrangement
05:26actually get making a plug-in system where i can decide i'm opt-in even as a trader as a
05:31big volume
05:31player as a big industrial i can opt-in and the idea of that is that you make it more
05:36of that kind
05:36of system you end up in a world where you have a lot more elaborate things ultimately what needs to
05:41change for businesses to see africa's 54 countries as one single market what that means fundamentally
05:47is that traders have to use it we can't wait for it to get perfect those agreements get better by
05:53actually trying to use the agreement we need to say we'll try to do the trade so that we can
05:58improve
05:58the actual trade and this is really what happens an agreement exists it creates trade rules and trade
06:03professional systems i choose to go and use the agreement i find the problems i complain the
06:08negotiators get around and we negotiate it or correct things government fixes things if government
06:12doesn't honor it we take it up with the government and that's how the system gets improved that's how
06:15the european union moved from the way it works to a better market and that's literally what we have
06:19to do just use the agreement and the upside is very clear we're going to get a seven percent income
06:24boost almost about 450 billion dollars according to the world bank if we choose to make this agreement
06:29work that could mean 30 million people getting out of extreme poverty right and we could double trade
06:34within a decade um as a continent according to african and so the the upside is huge if we just
06:39make it work well aditela thank you so much for your insights thank you you too all right
06:46the news coming from africa's tech scene seems to suggest that the party is over cheap money is gone
06:53and silicon valley is killing back across the continent in the following report we seek to find
06:59out whether the continent's tech story is ending or it is finally growing up over the past 12 months
07:06the retreat hit critical mass microsoft shuttered its lagos engineering hub and scaled down in nairobi
07:13uber pulled out of key ride hailing markets and jumia cut food delivery entirely with currencies like the
07:19nigerian naira collapsing over 70 percent against the dollar foreign tech giants retreated to protect
07:24their balance sheets start a venture funding crash from a six billion dollar pick down to just 2.1
07:31billion wiping out billions in paper valuations yet where global giants retreated homegrown players
07:38stepped in i have to be blunt about the africa can be a challenging environment to build in but i
07:43think
07:43that the people that build and succeed and really really thrive are the companies that have a great
07:47understanding of the local landscape and that's why actually it's important that one there are more and
07:51founders from the continent building these things that are great global companies um and like gray's
07:57an example where it's started here but it's now a global country there are 170 different cities across
08:02the world and so i think that it's important that we're building our own tech that we're not waiting
08:06for global giants to come and build on the continent that we're building companies that are going global
08:12local delivery champions like joe dex captured market share left by jumia food while flexible mobility
08:18and evie platforms adopted to local driver economics at this year's moonshot summit in lagos hosted by
08:23tech cable the focus shifted from foreign dollar ban to local currency backing matching local debt to
08:29local revenue so startups survive effects shocks i'm really encouraged by the size of the ai stage
08:35and of the companies showing really interesting things in ai doing applications in health tech in wellness
08:42in education in agriculture while africa currently captures less than one percent of the global ai
08:48market its broader digital economy is projected to reach 700 billion dollars by 2050 on the exhibition
08:54floors that potential was already visible in practical homegrown solutions backed by local currency
09:00financing instead of fragile dollar debt africa's tech sector is proving that while silicon valley
09:04capital may have backed out local innovation is taking full control
09:10the latest more ibrahim foundation's report reveals that nearly half of the continent population lives
09:17in countries where governance has deteriorated over the past decade the findings raise important
09:24questions about political stability investor confidence and the sustainability of economic growth
09:29here's a closer look can impressive gdp figures mask a collapsing political system according to the
09:37ibrahim index of african governance nearly half the continent's population lives in countries where
09:43overall governance has deteriorated over the past decade even as the economy is expanded rwanda ranks 14th
09:50with a 60 point score maintaining over six percent gdp tanzania ranks 21st and uganda 31st both pushing
09:57billions into oil even africa's largest economy nigeria ranks 30th at just 47.7 points the stark contrast in
10:05the index proves that governance directly impacts economic risks seashells tops the continent at 75.3 points
10:12joined by mauritius and kabu vad these governance leaders consistently command lower borrowing
10:17costs and secure africa's highest per capita fdi at the bottom south sudan sits at 18.5 for investors
10:24and policymakers the data forces a critical question is economic growth built without the rule of law
10:29actually sustainable the report offers a clear answer market size and demographic scale cannot offset
10:36institutional erosion strong legal guardrails and political stability are not secondary ideals they
10:42are essential economic infrastructure
10:47and that's all for this edition of business africa thank you for watching for the latest business news and
10:54analysis across the continent stay tuned to africa news or visit us online at africanews.com see you soon
