Skip to content
Back to blog

The State of Cross-Border Payments in Africa (2026)

By Sente Team15 Oct 2026
cross-borderfxafrica

Cross-border payments within Africa remain stubbornly expensive. Sending money from Lagos to Nairobi can cost 8–12% in fees and take 2–5 days — while a payment from London to Paris costs under 1% and settles in seconds.


The problem


Most intra-African payments are routed through correspondent banks in New York or London — a legacy of colonial-era financial infrastructure. Every hop adds cost and delay.


What Sente is doing


  • **Local rails first**: We integrate directly with M-PESA, mobile money operators, and local bank switches — no correspondent bank detour.
  • **FX transparency**: Our rate-lock mechanism (built on ISO 20022) lets senders see and lock in the exact exchange rate before confirming.
  • **Ledger-native settlement**: Every cross-currency transfer is a pair of double-entry journal postings — clear, auditable, and net-zero.

    • Our goal: bring intra-African payment costs below 2% by 2027.