African banks may be sitting on payment technology they aren’t fully using

African banks may be missing out on opportunities to innovate and improve digital services by not fully utilizing the payment technology they already possess, according to a recent conference in Cape Town. Jonathan Bautista, a regional solution director at BPC, a Swiss-based payment technology company, emphasized that banks should focus on modernizing rather than replacing their entire platforms.

Bautista suggested that banks can accelerate innovation by extracting more value from existing payment systems, allowing them to introduce products and services faster, enhance customer experiences, and expand into new markets without the high costs and disruptions associated with replacing entire platforms. While technology is important, modernization should be driven by business priorities and opportunities, he added.

African banks face increasing pressure to deliver speed and convenience expected from digital financial services. Many banks are investing heavily in technology and earning substantial revenue from digital payments, but there is also potential in improving services by better leveraging the payment systems they currently operate.

These payment systems can provide banks with capabilities to evaluate spending limits, fraud risks, customer behavior, and transaction-specific rules, enabling them to develop tailored products for different customer groups. Additionally, AI-based fraud detection is becoming crucial as banks attempt to identify suspicious transactions without mistakenly blocking legitimate ones.

Payment companies like Visa have already adopted AI-driven solutions to combat cyber-enabled scams, which caused $14.3 billion in losses in 2025. To capitalize on the opportunities presented by their existing payment systems, African banks need to understand which capabilities their platforms can support and how to connect them with the services customers demand.