Why tech founders need trust and efficiency to sustain cross-border growth

For every tech founder building within a national market, the demand for growth beyond borders is inevitable. However, there is a test of systems, trust, and operational strength to scale globally.

At the Lagos TechFest 2026, industry experts agreed that the real cost of cross-border growth lies in building systems. Systems that are trustworthy, transparent, and efficient enough to sustain scale.

The two-day event was held between February 17th and 18th in Lagos. It brought together founders, policymakers, and operators shaping Africa’s digital economy. Conversations ranged from emerging fintech trends to the infrastructure required to support Africa’s growing participation in global commerce.

During the breakout session tagged “The Deal-Maker’s Playbook: Scaling Cross-Border Commerce & Niche Settlements,” panellists offered a grounded, behind-the-scenes look at what it truly takes to scale across borders in 2026.

This was moderated by Ifeoluwa Adebayo, a tech journalist at Technext Nigeria. The panel featured operators building real-world financial infrastructure, such as Tayo Babatunde, CEO of Radiant Money; Ifeanyi Olabode, Head of Sales at Juicyway; Nader Salam, CTO at EpicPay; Oladipupo Salu, Head of Growth at Rabafast Technologies Inc.; and Modupe Akinola, Implementation Engineer at BPC.

Together, they explored how companies are evolving from simple payment tools into complex systems capable of handling liquidity, compliance, and cross-border trade.

Read also: Nigerian fintechs are burning millions to acquire customers; And, the math doesn’t add up

What does it take to scale globally as a tech founder?

Cross-border growth, for many tech founders, is often imagined as a natural next step in expanding, acquiring users, and increasing revenue. But in reality, it requires strong systems.

It requires building infrastructure that can handle multiple currencies, comply with different regulations, and earn the trust of users who may never physically interact with your business.

For Tayo Babatunde, CEO of Radiant Money, trust is the foundation on which everything else is built. Radiant Money is a cross-border payments platform that enables users to send, receive, and manage money across multiple currencies.

According to her, trust is not an abstract concept; it is something that must be built deliberately into the product experience.

“As the CEO of Radiant Money, I believe so much in building trust with my customers, which is why anyone who uses my product gets enough details for their transactions. We prioritise clarity on where your money is going, who is receiving it, when it will be recieved and when it arrives. Both the sender and the beneficiary have full visibility into what is happening with their money,” Babatunde said.

She added that her background in traditional banking has helped bridge the gap between legacy financial systems and the speed of modern fintech products.

“Radiant Money has been in existence since 2017, and we started in the UK. Today, we operate across multiple countries, including Nigeria, supporting transactions in over 58 currencies. We also operate with international financial licences from the UK and Canada. These track records have helped us build and maintain trust, especially in multi-currency environments,” Babatunde added.

While trust drives adoption, transparency and efficiency are what sustain growth.

At Juicyway, a cross-border payments platform focused on simplifying global transactions for Africans, transparency has been key to scaling even while operating quietly.

According to Ifeanyi Olabode, Head of Sales, the company has processed over $1.3 billion in transaction volume, largely driven by a referral-based growth model.

“At Juicyway, the focus is on making cross-border payments simpler, faster, and more accessible for Africans. By reducing transaction fees to as low as 0.01 and enabling near-instant transfers, including naira to dollar, we are building more efficient pathways for moving money within and outside Africa,” Olabode said.

Why tech founders need efficiency

Beyond trust and transparency, efficiency sits at the core of sustainable cross-border systems.

For Oladipupo Salu, Head of Growth at Rabafast, the conversation around growth has evolved. In 2026, the focus is no longer on growth at all costs, but on efficient growth. This involves acquiring high-value users, optimising operations, and making strategic decisions based on data.

Rabafast Technologies Inc., a global cross-border payments platform, is built to help businesses move money quickly, securely, and at competitive rates. Its focus is on enabling companies to pay international suppliers, settle invoices, and expand into new markets without friction.

During the session, he emphasised the importance of building a focused growth strategy without relying on heavy marketing spend, as well as the opportunities within niche B2B payments compared to consumer wallets. He also highlighted the role of growth analytics in helping companies decide when to pivot or double down on a specific market segment.

This shift reflects a broader trend in the ecosystem: founders are becoming more deliberate, prioritising sustainability over scale for its own sake.

From a technical standpoint, efficiency is impossible without strong backend infrastructure.

Modupe Akinola, an Implementation Engineer at BPC Banking Technologies, emphasised that cross-border success is deeply tied to the quality of a company’s systems.

With over 13 years of experience working on payment infrastructure, she has been involved in integrating financial institutions into Nigeria’s central switching system and deploying payment solutions across multiple regions.

According to her, building for scale requires more than just a functional product; it requires robust, compliant, and well-documented systems.

“Efficiency starts from the backend. You need strong API infrastructure, proper documentation, and systems that can scale without breaking. Your API architecture should be able to handle service downtimes and high times. That is what allows you to support growth across multiple markets,” Akinola said.

Similarly, Nader Salam, Chief Technology Officer at Epic Payment Technologies, brought an engineering perspective to the conversation.

EpicPay focuses on building payment infrastructure for businesses, including solutions that enable retailers to move beyond simple collections to more integrated financial systems.

He spoke about the challenges of enabling real-time bulk payouts and integrating payment systems with retail operations, particularly in environments where speed, reliability, and compliance must coexist.

Final Thoughts

The conversations at Lagos TechFest made one thing clear: Africa’s next phase of growth will not be driven by ambition alone, but by execution.

Founders building for cross-border scale must think beyond user acquisition and product-market fit. They must build systems that are compliant, auditable, and resilient enough to operate across multiple jurisdictions.

In 2026, tech founders who will scale across borders and niche settlements are those with great communication, transparency, strong API infrastructure, accredited financial licenses, customer trust and efficient systems to handle any season in e-commerce.

Read also: Oxygen X came to Lagos Tech Fest 2026 with a bigger point to make

The post Why tech founders need trust and efficiency to sustain cross-border growth first appeared on Technext.