The Emerging Markets Gap
Africa has the fastest-growing fintech market in the world. So why is everyone building core banking for New York and London? Top vendors bolt on 'localization' as an afterthought — and the result is 12–18 months of work to make a Western platform usable in one African market.
Africa has the fastest-growing fintech market in the world.
So why is everyone building core banking for New York and London?
The top core banking vendors — Temenos, FIS, Mambu, Thought Machine — are built for US and EU regulatory frameworks. When they expand to emerging markets, they bolt on "localization" as an afterthought.
Here's what that looks like in practice.
**KYC built for SSN and passport numbers.** Not BVN. Not NIN. Not Ghana Card. Not NIMC. So the bank spends six months building a custom identity layer on top.
**Payment rails that support SWIFT and SEPA natively** — but need custom integrations for NIP, NIBSS, GhIPSS, M-Pesa, MTN MoMo, Airtel Money. So the bank spends another six months building payment adapters.
**Compliance frameworks designed for FinCEN and FCA** — but no native support for CBN regulations, Bank of Ghana requirements, or Central Bank of Kenya directives. So the compliance team manually maps requirements.
By the time you've "localized" a Western platform for one African market, you've spent 12–18 months and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And you still don't have mobile money.
The fastest-growing financial markets deserve infrastructure built FOR them. Not infrastructure sold TO them.
Who's actually building for emerging markets — not just selling into them?
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*Originally posted on LinkedIn, March 2026.*