Freemarket, Fincra & Axiym: Powering Payments in Emerging Markets

Nick Miles, Head of Relationship Management at Freemarket, Malaika “MK” Ademola-Majekodunmi, VP Global Payment Systems at Fincra and Khibar Rassul, Co-founder and CEO at Axiym explore why emerging markets like Africa, Latin America and Asia are fast becoming the main growth hubs for payments, remittances and even sectors like online gaming. Rather than being seen as “developing”, these regions are positioned as highly dynamic, increasingly central to how money moves around the world.

A core driver is demographics and behaviour. Africa has around 1.4 billion people, with roughly 70% under 30 and this is a young, mobile-first, digital population that is constantly transacting, hustling, building businesses and moving money which naturally creates strong demand for better ways to pay and get paid, both locally and across borders.

The conversation also highlights trade and remittances as cross-border trade between Africa and Asia already runs into the trillions of dollars, especially along corridors such as Africa–China and Africa–India. Businesses across the continent need versatile payment solutions to pay suppliers and partners in these regions. At the same time, there’s a huge inbound remittance market, with people in the diaspora sending money home to family, making purchases or investing. Add to that intra-African payments, money flowing between countries within the continent – plus cross-border gaming and digital commerce, and the need for efficient payment rails becomes clear.

What makes these emerging markets especially attractive for fintech is the lack of heavy legacy systems as they’re plugging into a global financial system without decades of rigid “this is how it’s always been done” which makes payments easier to adopt and combine new tools like real-time settlements, alternative payment methods, payment aggregators, stablecoins and AI-driven solutions to do things cheaper, faster and smarter.

Finally, the role of infrastructure is key. Global payment networks and specialist providers build the underlying banking rails into harder-to-reach currencies and payment corridors as they let platforms and merchants plug in and move funds from A to B (and often via C and D) in a way that’s fast, compliant and cost-efficient. The end user doesn’t care which payment rail was used, only that the money arrives quickly and safely. Partnerships between local experts and global infrastructure providers are what make this possible and unlock the real potential of these emerging markets.

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