Cash is still king across Africa. Can a new payment platform transform business?

"From the tea houses of the ancient town of Casbah to the lemonade stalls in the Roman ruins of Tipaza and the fashion stores of downtown Algiers, cash remains king in and around the capital of Africa's third largest economy. Unlike in parts of east or west Africa, mobile money transfers are not a thing and only a few establishments take card payments. Ask any Algerian, said Ali Nassir, a driver with the French taxi-hailing app Heetch, which has no card payment option."

"But across the continent, even in countries with cashless policies, cash at point of sale is still very much in demand. Partly this is due to a trust deficit between sellers and buyers. Outside of the city, many people don't want to pay online before they get their order, said Tania Chorey, co-founder of Shoe Empire, a boutique in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. If you send items before collecting money, sometimes people switch off their phone to avoid paying."

"policymakers have struggled with the problem. For instance, a client from Burkina Faso who wants to buy dresses from a fashion designer in neighbouring Ghana either has to find a way to send money in cash across the border, or use an American or European correspondence account or payment gateway. At the IATF, described as the engine that accelerates trade expansion and investment flows by the former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, who chairs its advisory council, the situation played out at a vendor's stall."

Cash dominates everyday transactions in and around Algiers, with few establishments accepting cards and mobile money transfers largely unused. The persistence of cash partly stems from exchange-rate distortions between the official dinar rate and black-market rates, and from a trust deficit between buyers and sellers that discourages prepaid online payments outside urban centers. Vendors and policy makers face barriers to cross-border digital payments, forcing customers to move physical cash or rely on foreign correspondent accounts and payment gateways. The difficulty of settling real-time payments across African currencies emerged as a central challenge for traders and policymakers at the Intra-African Trade Fair.

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