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𝗪𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗵p𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗥𝘄𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿. 𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆. --- This isn’t about surfing. 𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙥𝙖𝙮𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙍𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙖. 𝘈 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴. That’s how I see Rwanda’s payments market. During my visit, I met Mr Blaise Pascal GASABIRA, CEO of RSwitch, and demoed Flashpay to him. He liked what he saw. But his first question was the most important: “This would work here, but what about feature phones? We still have many of them here.” That question captured a reality you won’t fully understand from market reports alone. Rwanda has strong digital ambitions, a remarkably young population and growing connectivity. Yet feature phones remain widespread, and smartphone adoption still has significant room to grow. The opportunity is not to copy and paste a Western payment product. It is to build for where Rwanda is going, without ignoring how people live today. Flashpay is being built for the next two billion users. We want to meet new smartphone users early, with a payment experience that feels natural from the beginning. But Blaise’s question reminded us that good innovation must answer two questions: 1. Are we meeting users where they are today? 2. Are we aligned with where the market is going? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝘄𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴. "Build for Rwanda’s digital future without overlooking its present-day reality." I left Rwanda with real appreciation for Mr Blaise and the RSwitch team. The work they are doing with eKash is inspiring, and I’m excited to see how it shapes the country’s payments journey.

“I don’t believe our generation will see the end of Visa or Mastercard. However, companies like Wero will keep expanding.” - Jonatan Allback I agree we might not see the end of these giants. They may continue powering institutions behind the scenes or shift into different verticals, similar to what BlackBerry and Nokia have done. But my position remains: Focused, locally relevant payment systems are positioned to come out on top over the next decade. We’re already seeing it: Pix in Brazil. Wero in Europe. UPI in India. And similar shifts across parts of Africa. The challenge for companies operating across multiple continents is simple: it’s harder to innovate locally when you’re trying to serve everyone. And in payments, understanding what locals actually want and need can be the biggest advantage.

"What if people want to fly?" That was my reply when Jonatan told me what a Visa exec once said to him. 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴. 𝘓𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵. I get the logic. If the whole market pays by card, you innovate on the card network and you are done. In Nigeria the whole market does not pay by card. People pay by transfer, over NIP, straight from their bank app. There is no scheme in the middle to build on top of. So at the end of the day the question is not train or rail. It is which rail your customer is already on at 11pm on a Friday, and in Lagos that is not a card.

One Amsterdam meeting became two African fintech journeys. Jonatan Allback was an early believer, investor, and strategic advisor in Flashpay. Years later, our paths span building, advising, investing, and friendship. This trailer revisits where that journey began and what working inside African payments taught us both. Full episode on youtube: https://lnkd.in/dD5B_yZ4 #Fintech #Founders #Flashpay

Everyone says paying with mobile money is easy. Last night reminded me that “easier” does not always mean “easy.” I met Mohamed Maalim, one of the key builders of Ekash at RSwitch. Our conversation spanned payments, Rwanda’s digital transformation over the past decade, and what becomes possible when vision is matched by consistent execution. Mohamed has helped build payment systems, including mobile money, across several African markets, including Rwanda, Zambia, Uganda, and Ghana. The wisdom and experience he shared cannot be acquired quickly. They come through participation, attention to detail, and time, perhaps our most expensive currency. One insight stayed with me: Payments are only one link in the long chain of systems that move a society forward; and it needs to be seamless. This is a thesis I have always held when thinking about financial inclusion. Payment infrastructure can appear almost invisible until a defining moment, such as COVID, reveals how essential it really is. After demonstrating Flashpay, I asked whether he could see it fitting into Rwanda’s ecosystem. His answer came without hesitation: “100%. This is needed in the market.” We spoke for hours, and we’ll continue the conversation on a podcast because insights like these shouldn’t remain with me alone. Then it was time to pay. I offered because I wanted to experience the local payment flow firsthand. After several unsuccessful attempts, Mohammed had to handle the payment - Thanks Mohamed. Later, back at my hotel, I tried again while ordering online. It eventually worked, but only after restarting my phone and going through a much longer process than expected. The issue wasn’t whether mobile money works. It does. The real friction was at the initiation layer: too many steps, too many opportunities for something to go wrong, and too much uncertainty along the way. Financial inclusion is not only about making digital payments available. It is also about making them easy to begin, understand, and complete. Digital does not automatically mean easy.

Jonatan and I first met in Amsterdam during the same week he moved from the United States to the Netherlands. Last weekend, years after that first meeting, I returned to his home. This time, we recorded a podcast. Jonatan Allback is the CEO of NjiaPay and one of Flashpay's earliest investors. As an #Adyen alumnus, he has worked across banking and payments in America and Europe and now leads an African payment company operating across markets including South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. That experience gives him a rare perspective on the African payments landscape. One moment from our conversation has stayed with me. Jonatan recalled discussing innovation with #Visa. Their response, as he remembered it, was: “We’ve built and perfected the rails. We don’t have to build the trains.” My immediate question was: “What if we want to fly instead?” That exchange captures a much larger conversation about payment infrastructure, innovation and whether the future should always be built on top of the systems we already have. There is a lot to unpack. The full episode will be available soon here on LinkedIn and on Flashpay’s YouTube channel. Thank you again, Jonatan, for welcoming me back into your home and for such an honest and thought-provoking conversation. #AfricanFintech #Payments #Innovation #Flashpay