African Fintech Industry to Target $65 Billion by 2030
Financial institutions must upgrade legacy systems to manage the complex lending and insurance products driving this growth.
Updated on Oct. 22, 2026 in Financial Services
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Africa's fintech sector is forecast to reach $65 billion in annual revenue by 2030, a 13-fold increase driven by expansion into complex lending, insurance, and cross-border services. Financial institutions must now modernize legacy infrastructure to handle these advanced products and regulatory demands.
Why it matters
Outdated infrastructure currently leaves over 50% of African lending in the informal sector, creating a significant revenue gap. Modernization is essential for firms to implement the risk assessments and compliance screening required for sophisticated financial services.
Africa currently accounts for 74% of global mobile money transaction volumes, yet more than 50% of all lending remains informal. Industry projections anticipate the fintech sector will grow 13-fold to reach $65 billion in total revenue by 2030.
The details
To scale, financial institutions are conducting infrastructure audits to determine which legacy systems require full replacement versus retention. Firms are adopting a migration strategy that involves running new and legacy platforms concurrently to maintain stability during the two-year transition window required to integrate multi-currency settlement and sanctions screening capabilities.
Timeline
October 22, 2026: The industry forecast report for African fintech growth is published.
2030: The target year for reaching the $65 billion annual revenue milestone.
Market Landscape
The transition toward integrated financial platforms follows the precedent set by the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System. This shift marks a departure from simple mobile money models toward advanced, multi-currency institutional services.
Operators in the region should assess whether their current tech stacks can support advanced risk reporting and multi-currency compliance. Migrating to new systems is expected to take two years, making early audit and platform selection critical for capturing the projected 2030 market expansion.
The takeaway
The move from basic payments to sophisticated lending and insurance requires a significant overhaul of core backend infrastructure. Operators should prioritize infrastructure audits now to ensure their platforms can meet the compliance and reporting requirements necessary to access the formal lending market.
Further reading
Read more on current trends in Financial Services.
Source note: This article includes information reported by CAJ News.
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