Beyond Borders: Trade Flows & Growth Frontiers

Beyond Borders: Trade Flows & Growth Frontiers panel session with Iheakachi Nwabueze, ACIM, VP, Global Marketing and Growth at Grey, Joshua Nwogodo, Founder & CEO at ZuniQ, Eugene Oekmwa, Senior Fraud/AML Analyst at Raenest, Seun Lanlege, Co-founder and CEO at Polytope Labs and Maria Adediran — Moderator, Associate Director & Head of Wimbart Lite, Wimbart.

Panelists trace how African cross-border trade is shifting from the old picture – money flowing mostly in from the global north – to something far more multi-directional, with businesses paying international suppliers, managing offshore SaaS subscriptions, and hiring contractors abroad, alongside a growing wave of freelancers earning globally while living locally. The bottleneck is infrastructure, not demand: payments still get routed through Europe or the US even for intra-African transfers, adding days of delay and 5-10% in costs that hit startups’ working capital hardest, compounded by fragmented FX markets and capital controls across 40+ currencies.

Stablecoins and DeFi are framed as real disruptors here – settlement that takes seconds instead of days, at a fraction of the cost – though usability and compliance complexity still need fintechs to abstract that complexity away from average users. The panel pushes back on treating compliance as just a barrier, arguing companies that build in robust risk management and multi-currency infrastructure early turn it into a trust advantage that attracts investors and unlocks scale, while frameworks like AfCFTA remain necessary but not sufficient without matching progress on payment settlement and FX liquidity.

Highlights include
🌍 African businesses want to trade intra-continentally but are held back by fragmented, inefficient payment systems.
💼 A growing wave of freelancers now earn from global markets while living locally, reshaping Africa’s cross-border economic participation.
💸 Stablecoins like USDT and USDC cut cross-border settlement from days to seconds at a fraction of traditional cost.
🔄 Money flows are increasingly multi-directional — African businesses now pay international suppliers, SaaS platforms, and offshore contractors, not just receive remittances.
⚠️ Payments routed through Europe or the US add days of delay and 5-10% in cost, disproportionately hurting startups’ working capital.
🔗 DeFi platforms like Aave, with $65 billion in liquidity, are starting to rival traditional banks on scale and cost.
🛡️ Compliance and risk management, embraced early, become a trust advantage that attracts investors rather than just a regulatory hurdle.

Africa Tech Summit Nairobi 2026 celebrated its 8th edition on February 11th and 12th at the Sarit Expo Centre in Nairobi. Bringing together leading industry players the summit explored the latest trends and insights in technology and business across Africa and beyond.

From keynotes to dynamic panel discussions, the summit explored groundbreaking topics across four flagship tracks: the Africa Money & DeFi Summit, Africa Climate Tech & Investment Summit, Africa Startup Summit, and Africa AI & Digital Summit. Attendees immersed themselves in the latest trends, shared ideas, and discovered cutting-edge innovations that are redefining Africa’s tech landscape.