At the RMB Think Summit 2026 this week, Michael Jordaan's argument about African fintech success was not the usual glossy conference pitch about apps, disruption and clever code. It was much more grounded and probably more useful. The winners in African fintech are not necessarily the flashiest companies. They are the ones that accept the market as it is.

The African market has its own challenges. For starters, phones are basic, data is expensive. Cash is still everywhere, while credit histories are thin. Card penetration is limited and payment rails are fragmented. Regulation is slow.

But, according to businessman, entrepreneur and co-founder of Bank Zero Michael Jordaan, the companies that win do not treat these as reasons to complain. They turn them into barriers that competitors struggle to cross.

"Seriously, that may get you followers on X, but it won't get your business to succeed," he said, referring to complaints about low-cost phones, limited data, lack of credit cards and bureaucracy. "If you want to succeed, you've got to treat these constraints as the moat, not as an obstacle."

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That, in essence, is the African fintech playbook. Build for the device people already have, sit behind trusted institutions, keep costs brutally low and design for the market rather than the PowerPoint version of it.

Lesson 1: Build for the device people already own

The first lesson is simple. Do not build for the customer you wish you had.

"Build for the device people already own, not the one that you wish they owned," Jordaan said.

That explains the enduring...