Cross-border payments remain one of the biggest barriers to financial inclusion across Africa. While people travel, trade, and work across borders every day, their money often doesn’t move as freely. In this episode of The Issuer Academy podcast, host Merusha Naidu is joined by Smangele Khumalo, Chief Operating Officer at Chikwama Pay. Together, they discuss how the company is building a borderless digital bank designed for the way Africans live and trade.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Chikwama Pay is reimagining financial inclusion
• Why WhatsApp is the perfect banking interface
• The operational realities of scaling a fintech across multiple African markets
• What it takes to build the “Revolut of Africa”
  
  

Smangele Khumalo is the Chief Operating Officer at Chikwama Pay, a borderless neobank transforming cross-border payments across Africa. With expertise in scaling fintech operations across diverse and highly regulated African markets, Smangele has been instrumental in building partnerships with mobile operators, banks, and regulators to create seamless digital banking solutions. In this episode, she shares how Chikwama Pay is redefining financial inclusion by leveraging WhatsApp and mobile-first technology to enable millions of Africans and businesses to transact safely, affordably, and instantly across borders.


Episode Resources:

• Smangele Khumalo on LinkedIn
• Chikwama Pay Website
• Merusha Naidu on LinkedIn
• Paymentology Website

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