Africa left out as SWIFT rolls out faster cross-border payments in 17 countries

SWIFT’s new Retail Payments Framework is enabling cross-border transfers to arrive in seconds, but Africa is absent from the initial rollout covering 17 countries and 25 payment corridors.

The framework, launched with 26 financial institutions, is designed to make international payments faster and more transparent. It offers upfront information on fees, end-to-end transaction tracking and confirmation when funds reach recipients, with settlement times depending on the capabilities of local payment systems.

Transfers from Australia to Spain have reportedly taken as little as 23 seconds, while payments from Australia to India have taken 37 seconds. A transfer from China to the United States was completed in about a minute.

The absence of African countries from the initial phase is significant for a region where cross-border transfers remain expensive and often unpredictable. According to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report for the third quarter of 2025, sending US$200 to Sub-Saharan Africa cost an average of 8.46% — the highest average among the regions tracked.

For families relying on remittances, traders and businesses operating across borders, high transaction costs can reduce the value of payments and affect cash flow. Delays and limited information about payment status also create challenges for customers who need certainty about when funds will arrive and how much recipients will receive.

The SWIFT framework seeks to address some of these problems through clearer pricing, improved tracking and faster settlement. However, Africa already has payment infrastructure providers working to improve cross-border transactions. Yellow Card, for instance, says its stablecoin-based infrastructure supports more than 50 currencies and enables users to send and receive money across 20 African markets.

The development of such platforms should not be viewed as a contest between traditional banking networks and stablecoin-based systems. SWIFT is also developing a blockchain-based ledger to support digital asset exchange and future cross-border transactions, with 17 institutions preparing to pilot transactions involving tokenised deposits.

Both approaches could contribute to a more connected payments ecosystem, provided they are reliable, accessible and capable of working together. The priority, according to Ametewee, should be to ensure that African businesses and consumers benefit from the same speed, transparency and certainty being introduced in other markets.

The regulatory landscape is also evolving. Ghana passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act in December 2025, while Kenya enacted its VASP legislation in October 2025. Nigeria has also brought digital assets under Securities and Exchange Commission oversight through its Investments and Securities Act 2025. South Africa, meanwhile, has had a licensing regime for crypto asset service providers since 2022.

Ametewee argues that African regulators, banks, fintech companies and payment infrastructure providers should use the current gap as an opportunity to develop systems suited to the continent’s currencies, trading corridors and users, while ensuring interoperability with global networks.

The SWIFT rollout, he says, provides a benchmark for what cross-border payments can become. Rather than waiting for Africa to be included in later phases, the continent should help shape the next generation of payment infrastructure.