SWIFT launches fast cross-border payments excluding African nations

SWIFT launched its Retail Payments Framework to enable international money transfers to arrive in seconds across 17 countries and 25 payment corridors.

The new framework aims to make global payments more transparent by providing upfront fee information and end-to-end transaction tracking. While the system allows for near-instant transfers between countries like Australia, Spain, India, China, and the United States, it does not currently include any African nations.

The exclusion of Africa is notable because the region faces some of the world's highest costs for sending money. The World Bank reported that sending 200 US dollars to Sub-Saharan Africa cost an average of 8.46 percent in the third quarter of 2025, the highest rate among all tracked regions. These high costs and unpredictable delays affect families who rely on remittances and businesses that trade across borders.

Local infrastructure providers are already working to solve these issues using different technologies. Yellow Card uses stablecoin-based infrastructure to support more than 50 currencies across 20 African markets. Meanwhile, SWIFT is developing its own blockchain-based ledger to support digital assets, with 17 institutions preparing to pilot transactions involving tokenized deposits. Ametewee argues that African regulators and financial companies should use this gap to build systems tailored to the continent's specific currencies and trading corridors.

Several countries have already begun updating their regulations, with Ghana and Kenya passing legislation for virtual asset service providers in late 2025. Nigeria also placed digital assets under the oversight of its Securities and Exchange Commission in 2025.