The Surprising Complexity of Cross-Border Payments in Africa Revealed | Fintech Fridays

I mean, you've broken it down nicely what Pawa Pay is for those that don't really

understand, but could you tell us a bit about your role and what a typical day may look

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like for you, you know, working at the company?

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Yeah, I'm laughing because I'm still waiting to have a typical day, I'm the CFO at Pawa

Pay.

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And in that remit, I looked after, of course, the finance function, the tax function, the

legal function, and also the treasury function.

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um And well, I love it.

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think uh one of the things I really appreciate is that, you know, of course, the finance

piece is crucial, but the opportunity to be CFO at this company also puts me right in the

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heart of the

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commercial and strategic discussions around the business as well and in close contact with

our clients.

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uh What do I mean by that?

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Treasury sits at the heart of what we do.

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So congratulations, you've collected a million dollars worth of Zambian Kwacha But if

you're a European, you're not just calling HSBC and asking to do a trade.

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It's our obligation to help you get those funds settled either locally or internationally.

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And uh the other aspect of it that's really nice is that a lot of the time we're selling

to sometimes my counterpart at another organization.

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um you know, think no CFO wants to think about payments that much.

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Right?

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It's a, it's a challenge you need to solve.

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But if you've got a company that's for the first time starting to do business on the

continent, there's so many exciting things to think about.

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There's, there's, there's, there's marketing, there's choosing your markets, there's

assessing the opportunity.

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There's, there's so much to think about in terms of planning and risk.

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Payments aren't an afterthought, but they just need to work.

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And that's where we step in and sort of being the partners to help them navigate that.

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And then in doing so, like helping them to

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think a little bit more about what their strategy for the continent might look like as

well.

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So a typical day for me, we'll be all over the place.

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mean, between the 20 countries and those various teams, we're picking up lots of different

things.

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We spend a lot of time looking at Treasury now, trying to make it more efficient, trying

to integrate it more into the process, because we see that as being a huge friction, not

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just for us, but for other businesses who want to expand in the continent.

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We spend a lot of time.

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you know, trying to support our teams in market because across these 20 countries, we have

a presence on the ground.

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We really pride ourselves on being an Africa focused, but also an African present business

and, you know, looking to kind of bolster the reputation of the brand, do outreach,

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engagement, and really trying to build our reputation and partnerships locally.

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Perfect.

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And I think that's a good place to segue because he mentioned locally, being present on

the continent locally, as well as serving the continent from outside Africa as well.

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You mentioned of course, you're in Accra right now for the 3i Africa Summit, et cetera.

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And I know people such as the CEO and the CEO from Pawa Pay, they've been very active in

getting involved in events such as the Africa Tech Summit and things like that.

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How important has it for Pawa Pay to be on the ground as well as building from outside of

the continent as well as I'm aware your team is scattered across the globe.

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Yeah, mean, first of all, the majority of our team is based in Africa.

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And for us, it's essential.

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um There's a statutory piece to that.

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We're locally licensed, we're compliant.

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That engenders particular obligations to have dedicated staff on the ground, which of

course we adhere to.

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uh But you really need to have an understanding of local markets.

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You need to have networks.

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You need to have relationships.

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mean, everything I'm saying here applies to doing business everywhere.

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It's not unique, but...

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uh

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It's absolutely crucial.

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know, we have more than 200 mobile money wallets.

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We have more than 150 bank accounts.

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We're working with dozens and dozens and dozens of counterparties.

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And our job is to make all of that disappear when it comes to a company that wants to

collect a payment or do a payout or transfer money from one country to another.

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And you can have all of

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the agreements in place, can have all of the technology in place, but you still need to be

present and have the relationships and the networks to make sure that that can happen

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seamlessly.

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And not just to do it in terms of like the existing operations, but also to understand

where the next opportunities are coming, how you can develop things further, how we can

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expand.

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uh So much of that comes from the brilliant teams that we have in the business operating

across Africa.