By SCM Staff Writer I Friday, October 17, 2025
LAGOS, Nigeria — Africa’s next phase of digital growth will be determined not by the speed of new start-up launches but by the strength and security of its core infrastructure, according to payments giant Interswitch, a key sponsor at the recent Moonshot by TechCabal 2025 gathering in Lagos.
The message, delivered as the company served as Platinum Sponsor and curator of the Big Tech and Enterprise Stage, was a pragmatic pivot away from the sector’s typical focus on front-end innovation.
Interswitch stressed that trust and infrastructure are the indispensable pillars for a resilient digital economy that has now moved into “acceleration mode.”
Akeem Lawal, Managing Director of Payments Processing and Switching (Interswitch Purepay), highlighted that sustaining this momentum requires immediate, focused investment in secure, scalable, and interoperable systems. “Innovation sparks progress, but enduring systems sustain it,” Lawal stated in his keynote address.
The company, which has spent over two decades building the digital rails that underpin the continent’s transaction landscape through products like Verve and Quickteller, positions its role as cultivating confidence across the ecosystem. Interswitch noted that behind the millions of transactions daily it enables lies the assurance that the network will consistently deliver.
The $1.1 Trillion Capital Challenge
Interswitch also spotlighted the crucial role of capital mobilisation. The potential, according to the firm’s analysis presented at Moonshot, is immense, with over $1.1 trillion in domestic capital available through African pension and sovereign funds.
The critical challenge, Lawal explained, is converting these vast, latent resources into the tangible infrastructure needed to propel the continent’s innovation. Interswitch champions intensified public and private capital collaboration to build the necessary digital backbone.
Amidst an atmosphere described as a fusion of optimism and ambition, Interswitch’s message cut through the noise: Africa’s digital journey must prioritise sustainability over mere speed. The systems being built today must be robust enough to carry the dreams of tomorrow’s digitally connected economy.
The company affirmed its ongoing commitment to not just enabling transactions, but to building the foundational trust and systems that allow Africa to “go further, together.”
