Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of FMDQ Group Plc, Zeal Akaraiwe, has said that the full benefits of Africa’s growing cross-border payment infrastructure depend on goods and services moving as freely across the continent’s borders.
Akaraiwe took the helm at FMDQ in June after more than two decades in financial markets, derivatives and risk advisory across Nigeria, Zambia and the United Kingdom.
Akaraiwe spoke at the S&P Global Africa Summit 2026 in a two-day gathering in Lagos themed, ‘Turning West Africa’s Potential into Reality.’
His panel, ‘Beyond Banking: Fintech, Digital Assets and the Future of Capital Flows in Africa,’ was moderated by Luigi Motti, Head of Financial Institutions Ratings, EMEA, at S&P Global Ratings.
The other panellists were Serah Makka, Executive Director for Africa at ONE Campaign; Muyiwa Oni, Head of Equity Research at Stanbic IBTC; Ugo Nwaghodoh, Executive Director at United Bank for Africa; Niyi Toluwalope, Chief Executive Officer of eTranzact; and Jay Alabraba, Co-founder and Director of Business Development at Paga.
On digital assets, Akaraiwe described a question that has largely been settled. “Virtual assets,” he said, “are here to stay. What remains is how to integrate them.”
Virtual assets, he said, now need to be brought “deeply into the system” so that they thrive “alongside the traditional mechanisms”. FMDQ Group operates exchange, clearing and depository infrastructure across Nigeria’s debt capital, foreign exchange, derivatives and equity markets.
Turning to exchange controls, Akaraiwe pointed to exchange controls as one that does essential work. In his words, the regime “protects our economic environment from certain types of abuses that we cannot afford to have”.
He nonetheless saw room for change. Across the continent, he observed, countries are beginning to accept that these regimes could be eased, a shift that would allow capital to flow “slightly more freely”.
Freer capital, however, is only part of the picture. For the region, Akaraiwe argued, the movement of goods and services matters more.
“Much more important than the flow of capital is the actual flow of goods and services,” he said. “Because there is no point in having a very sophisticated payment infrastructure cross-border when the actual goods cannot cross the border.”
The greatest opportunity, in his view, lies in pairing these shifts with investment in processing Africa’s raw materials on the continent.
“If those things are combined with the building of processing capacity for raw materials in Africa, that’s going to be a massive game changer,” he said.