Treasury in Africa 2026: Scaling operating models in a fragmented environment

Explore the themes that will shape the African treasury agenda in 2026 and beyond.

10 March 2026

9 mins

Corporate & investment bankingTransaction bankingTreasury

Treasury priorities across Africa are being reset by expansion and acquisition activity. As corporates continue to grow across the continent – both organically and through acquisitions – treasury teams are increasingly managing environments that were never designed to operate as a single system. Fragmented banking relationships, inconsistent processes and uneven technology maturity are now common features of multi-market African operations.

This expansion has materially increased operational complexity. Newly acquired entities often arrive with manual, spreadsheet-driven workflows and locally optimised banking arrangements that offer limited visibility at group level. As a result, treasurers are under pressure not only to support growth, but to impose stronger discipline around liquidity, risk management, governance and integration of new team members.  

In 2026, the focus is therefore shifting towards building operating models that can scale across jurisdictions without sacrificing control, compliance or resilience. This is pushing treasury teams to standardise processes and controls wherever possible, while still enabling locally compliant execution in markets where regulatory frameworks, FX availability and tax regimes differ significantly. In parallel, treasurers are becoming more selective about technology adoption, prioritising solutions that improve automation, risk oversight and liquidity decision-making rather than innovation for its own sake.

These pressures are also reframing how treasury engages with banks. Increased Request for Proposal (RFP) and Request for Information (RFI) activity reflects a desire to simplify partner models and strengthen regional oversight as complexity increases. Against this backdrop, several themes are becoming increasingly central to the African treasury agenda: the evolution of treasury technology, growing exploration of stablecoins and digital currencies, persistent challenges around cash forecasting and trapped liquidity, and the rise of regional treasury hubs as anchors for scalable execution.

Building the foundation for automation, visibility and control

Strong technology programmes have moved from being efficiency enablers to being foundational elements of treasury operating models. As organisations expand across multiple African markets, technology is becoming the primary mechanism through which standardisation is enforced, visibility is improved and control is maintained.

Much of the current focus is on strengthening the underlying infrastructure. ISO 20022 readiness and access to richer payment data are improving consistency in processing and reporting, while APIs are becoming central to bank connectivity and internal workflows. This is particularly evident in regional treasury centres and shared service models, where APIs support automated payment initiation, faster credit notifications and more responsive liquidity management. The benefit is not only operational efficiency, but also improved oversight across complex, multi-bank environments.

These foundations are enabling more targeted adoption of automation in sectors where transaction volumes and operational models justify investment. In areas such as automotive supply chains as well as, ecommerce platforms and the broader paytech & fintech sector, higher payment volumes and more predictable flows make the return on automation and structured data particularly compelling. In these environments, straight-through processing and instant reconciliation directly supports better forecasting and tighter working capital management.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) onboarding and standardisation programmes, which integrate core business processes such as finance, HR, manufacturing, supply chain, and procurement, are closely linked to this agenda. As acquired entities are migrated onto common ERP platforms, treasurers are using the transition to replace manual workflows, embed consistent controls and improve data quality. While these programmes often take time to complete, they are increasingly viewed as a core treasury initiative rather than a purely IT-driven exercise, providing a critical foundation for scalability.  

Changes in payment rails are also influencing how treasurers think about liquidity. Instant payment systems and mobile or digital wallets are supporting faster collections and disbursements in many African markets, expanding participation beyond traditional banking channels and increasing the potential velocity of cash.

Within this broader technology landscape, AI is beginning to play a role in a measured and targeted way. Most traction today is in practical use cases such as fraud detection and cash forecasting, where AI enhances existing processes rather than replacing them. Some large corporates, particularly in high-volume environments such as telecommunications, are also exploring dynamic or just-in-time liquidity models. However, adoption remains highly dependent on data quality, platform readiness and the availability of appropriate skills.

These same factors define the limits of current progress. Infrastructure maturity and technology adoption vary significantly by country and by sector, limiting the feasibility of uniform regional rollouts and often forcing parallel processes. Integration following acquisitions continues to slow standardisation, particularly where newly acquired entities rely on spreadsheets and fragmented banking relationships. As automation scales, cyber security and control requirements also become more demanding, increasing implementation complexity and change-management effort.

As a result, most treasurers remain focused on getting the foundations right. For many organisations, the priority over the next two years is not rapid innovation, but making sure that systems, data and controls are robust enough to support growth.  Standard Chartered are currently partnering with corporates across South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire, advising on the design and execution of ERP and TMS RFP processes. Our approach is to ensure alignment with the broader treasury technology stack of newly acquired entities, while embedding the necessary guard rails, visibility and efficiency gains required to deliver a sustainable treasury transformation journey.

Exploring new settlement models for constrained liquidity environments

Digital currencies are now being assessed more seriously through a treasury lens, with a clearer distinction emerging between near-term applicability and longer-term potential. While central bank digital currencies continue to attract attention, most current use cases remain domestic, which limits their immediate relevance for cross-border liquidity mobility and trapped cash challenges.

The more notable shift is the growing corporate interest in stablecoins and tokenised deposits. This interest is being driven by practical considerations: the potential to shorten settlement chains, improve speed and availability of funds, and reduce friction in markets where access to hard currency and cross-border settlement remains constrained. For treasurers operating across Africa, these challenges are not theoretical, which is why exploration is increasingly focused on tangible use cases rather than conceptual innovation.

Regulatory developments are beginning to support more structured exploration. The emergence of Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) frameworks in several priority markets is enabling clearer discussions around onboarding regulated intermediaries and issuers, and around which treasury use cases could be supported locally. This regulatory progress is also encouraging a more disciplined approach to risk, governance and compliance in digital currency initiatives.

Among digital asset models, stablecoins are attracting corporate interest for cross-border settlement and treasury operations, provided participation can be appropriately governed. At the same time, tokenised deposits are gaining attention as a potential bridge between conventional treasury balances and blockchain-based rails. Treasury interest here is focused less on tokenising assets and more on tokenising deposits, with local-currency tokenisation frequently cited as a priority requirement.

The treasury rationale for tokenisation is consistent across markets: faster settlement – including outside traditional banking windows, reduced intermediary friction and associated costs – and improved liquidity velocity. However, adoption remains exploratory. Readiness varies significantly by market, and progress is dependent on regulatory clarity, infrastructure maturity and the ability to integrate tokenised solutions into existing treasury controls, reporting, and accounting frameworks.

Markets such as Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa are increasingly focal points for structured exploration, reflecting regulatory momentum and growing engagement between corporates, banks and intermediaries. For most treasurers, the next phase is about understanding market-specific provisions and identifying where participation could be feasible.

Regional treasury hubs on the rise

As treasury teams continue to standardise systems and processes, decisions around where to anchor regional capabilities are becoming increasingly strategic. Regional treasury centres and shared service models are gaining momentum as organisations look to centralise expertise, improve consistency and support scalable execution across Africa.

South Africa has emerged as a particularly attractive hub in this context. Its established technology ecosystem, depth of treasury and data analytics skills, and time-zone alignment with Europe make it well suited to coordinating multi-market operations. In addition, South Africa’s regulatory framework creates structural opportunities for corporates to support African subsidiaries from a South Africa base, reinforcing its role as a gateway hub.

At the same time, hub design must account for exchange control considerations, particularly around repatriation planning and cross-border liquidity structures. These factors increasingly influence how treasury centres are structured and how liquidity strategies are executed in practice, linking hub decisions directly to broader balance sheet and funding considerations.

Mauritius is also sharpening its position in the regional hub landscape. For international treasury teams, it offers operational alignment with European hours and growing relevance as a settlement hub. Recent enhancements to USD settlement cut-off times have strengthened its proposition, enabling later-day processing aligned with global operating windows.

Together, South Africa and Mauritius highlight how hub selection is increasingly closely linked to technology readiness, control frameworks, and the ability to operate consistently across diverse African markets. As treasury operating models continue to evolve, regional hubs will be critical enablers of resilience, scalability, and effective liquidity management.

Designing treasury for Africa’s next phase

While progress has been notable, patience will continue to be key for treasurers operating across Africa. Certainly, Africa remains far from one-size-fits-all. Larger markets are moving faster on infrastructure, regulation and digital adoption, while others evolve more gradually. Treasury operating models must accommodate this staggered reality, combining central visibility and governance with locally compliant execution.

The opportunity is significant. Instant payments, APIs, mobile wallets and emerging blockchain rails are improving participation, speed, and liquidity mobility across the continent. Regulatory momentum around digital assets is creating space for innovation, even as caution remains warranted.

The most successful treasury teams will be those who design for scale without overreach, investing in strong foundations, choosing technology selectively and building partnerships that bring local insight alongside regional coordination.