“Can Africa's payment switching utility become the embedded financial infrastructure layer for the continent before global players (Visa, Mastercard, Stripe) move in?”
Founded 2002 as a Nigerian transaction-switching utility (the rails between banks and ATMs). Expanded into consumer fintech with Quickteller (bill payments / P2P) and into card networks with Verve — Africa's largest domestic card scheme. Visa's 2019 investment cemented Interswitch as the dominant African payments infrastructure player and a perpetual IPO candidate. The company is now layering embedded finance — lending APIs, payouts, KYC verification, e-invoicing — onto its switching backbone.