Although emerging markets envision a future where their economy is cashless and digitally forward, cash still reigns supreme in these markets.
A panel consisting of Abdelslam Alaoui Smaili, CEO of Hightech Payment Systems (HPS); Alaa Alrousan, Head of SWIFT in the Middle East and North Africa region; Martin Kwame, President of Ghana Fintech and Payments Association; and Darius Alexander, the Managing Director of FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm based in the US, discussed at the AIM Congress – Abu Dhabi, on 8 April 2025, the role of digital payment in shaping financial architecture around the world, transforming public economies, and fostering cross-border financial inclusion.
On effectively speeding the migration from cash to a digital economy, Smaili stated, “Cash management is the use of the right cash at the right place at the right time and using it efficiently and securely. What we see today is that this is not happening everywhere.”
Our CEO Abdeslam Alaoui took the stage at @AIM_Congress 2025 in Abu Dhabi to share his vision on “The Future of Payments: Cashless Societies and the Future of Global Transactions.”#Feelgoodaboutpayments pic.twitter.com/JHMxIxNK9s
— HPS (@HPS_worldwide) April 8, 2025
On the issue of cash still reigning supreme in emerging markets, Smaili explains that legacy systems, which banks, fintechs, and regulators still use within the payments ecosystem, create a fragmented payments landscape without any interoperability. Furthermore, many processes that can be automated are still executed manually.
Furthermore, Smaili says that companies need to put more effort into data collection for digital payments to succeed in emerging markets. To become a cashless economy, digital payments need to be instant, interoperable, and secure. Investments in these areas will enable more digital payments, boosting efficiency and creating value for the people.
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Lack of Interoperability May Cause the Global GDP to Shrink by $6 Trillion by 2030
Further expanding on interoperability, Alrousan said that although SWIFT is one of the largest financial networks in the world, processing over 53 million transactions a day, users in today’s reality have more means of making payments since there are more networks and payment options available.
Because of rising geopolitical tensions and advancements in technology, the economic landscape is at risk of being fragmented and operating in silos. Alrousan believes that economies must talk to each other and that interoperability is baked into SWIFT’s strategy.
He says that if fragmentation continues, exacerbated by external factors such as trade wars, by 2030, the global GDP could see a reduction of 1.2% in the best-case scenario and 6.5% (around $6 trillion) in the worst-case scenario.
Expanding on the work done to foster interoperability, Alrousan cites SWIFT’s partnership with Buna, a cross-border payment solution driven by the Arab Monetary Fund, designed to handle and integrate the 22 economies of the Arab world, where Buna uses SWIFT’s network to bring value to their respective central banks and help economies integrate.
He also touches upon public-private partnerships, where many central banks have gone live with CBDCs, and some are still in pilot stages. He says that SWIFT does not necessarily need to become a CBDC network itself, but CBDC networks need to speak to non-CBDC networks as well to function cohesively.
Alrousan mentions that SWIFT has carried out experiments with 39 central banks, including banks from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, to make sure CBDC and non-CBDC networks can speak to each other.
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Africa is at the Precipice of a Giant Boom in the Digital Payments Architecture
Remittances and micro-lending are what everyone talks about when it comes to Africa; however, there is a lot more happening beneath the surface. Emerging technologies like AI and crypto have put Africa under the spotlight.
Kwame believes that there are more opportunities than challenges. He mentions a system developed in Ghana in partnership with HPS where users can make instant payments for goods and services from different funding sources (mobile wallets, cards, bank accounts) by scanning a quick response code on a smartphone.
Kwame also advises fintechs to not look at Africa as a whole but to create nuanced experiences for different countries within the continent, as needs may vary.
He says that Africa has always struggled with assisted finance and believes that solving the issue will lessen the noise about investments and other developments. Africa needs to create frameworks for assisted finance so that businesses and individuals can grow.
Kwame hopes that companies can build solutions stack so that assisted finance becomes a reality and sees a lot of growth in this particular sector for the continent.
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Cutting Down the Cost of Cash Can Significantly Boost GDP
Smaili further noted that the success of any fintech in this space relies on its relevance and its interoperability since it increases the size of the market. Regarding markets like Ghana, he said analysts need to examine the verticals sharply so that solution providers can seamlessly plug in gaps to specific needs.
Also, Smaili mentions the cost of cash globally to be 0.3%, a significant part of global GDP, and reducing this through digital payment adoption will significantly impact the GDP of many countries.
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Key Takeaways
- Fragmentation of the global economy may result in a 6.3% drop in global GDP.
- Digital payment solutions can cut down the cost of cash, estimated at 0.3% of the global GDP.
- Legacy systems, manual operations and the lack of interoperability cause emerging markets to heavily rely on cash.
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