South Africa’s fintech sector occupies a rare position: operating within a relatively stable domestic financial system while confronting mounting global volatility.
Source: Supplied. Charl Kleynhans, Altron FinTech Senior Manager Implementations.
At home, banks remain resilient, regulation is predictable, and digital adoption continues to deepen. Yet beyond the country’s borders, geopolitical uncertainty, economic turbulence and shifting technology trends are reshaping the business landscape — making agility essential for successful project delivery.
For years, the biggest challenges for fintech delivery in South Africa were internal, such as intermittent connectivity, load shedding, uneven adoption, and varying levels of financial literacy.
Today, those persistent local issues are joined by forces beyond our control – volatile exchange rates, shifting cloud pricing, geopolitical shocks and the reliability of global tech partners. If teams fail to factor these into execution, months of work can unravel because of events happening halfway around the world.
Comfort zones conceal fragility
When conditions feel stable, teams repeat what worked before without questioning assumptions. Which dependencies are too concentrated? Which processes have not been stress-tested? Which critical capabilities should have been localised years ago?
These questions only surface when external shocks force them into view. That discomfort is useful because disruption reveals weaknesses which stable environments hide. Teams that are agile can pivot in response; those that are not, cannot.
Global dependencies demonstrate this clearly. A fintech solution might be 80% local logic and code, but the 20% that depends on an international component like a cloud provider can determine whether a launch succeeds or stalls.
Volatile exchange rates affect hosting costs while cloud service interruptions halt transactions. Delivery models must assume disruption rather than hope it does not occur. The ability to anticipate, respond, and adapt – core elements of agility – is what separates success from failure.
Local complexity prepares us for global volatility
Global instability demands teams that can adapt to diverse, changing conditions. South Africa’s fintech teams have been building exactly that muscle for years – because our diverse customer landscape has always required it.
In this regard, township entrepreneurs often operate in cash-centric, largely manual environments, with inconsistent internet access and routine power outages. Financial literacy gaps mean explanations must start from different baseline assumptions while regulatory oversight that applies to large enterprises often does not reach smaller operations.
Decision-making structures differ – some communities operate through collective networks rather than individual authority. By contrast, corporate finance teams expect digital maturity, deep system integration and formal compliance frameworks. Treating these as the same customer is a reliable way to misfire.
Some projects might require onboarding through WhatsApp rather than email, or human support instead of automated helpdesks.
This comes against a backdrop of infrastructure constraints that always require project teams be on their toes.
Power interruptions are now also operational facts of life and home-grown solutions include backup power modules, multiple internet service providers with automatic failovers, and offline functionality designed from the start. These are not glamorous innovations, but they keep businesses running when assumptions about constant connectivity and power prove false.
In South Africa’s lived reality, execution speed and reliability have become differentiators precisely because external volatility makes them harder to guarantee. Many customers cannot tolerate delays or cost overruns. Projects delivered on time, at predictable cost, and with clear communication build trust and repeat work.
In this environment, simplicity matters. Over-engineered systems may look elegant, but they are often brittle. Modular, manageable systems absorb shocks without paralysis. The only variable delivery that teams fully control is how well they execute. Agility ensures that control translates into dependable outcomes.
Risk visibility lives at every level
Execution cannot rest with one executive or project manager. Developers spot technical weaknesses when systems are under pressure. Support teams hear where users struggle. Account managers see operational stress points as customers navigate changing conditions.
Each role has visibility into different dimensions of risk. Organisations that create space for these insights to surface and act on them strengthen not just individual projects, but delivery capability as a whole. Agile teams treat this distributed insight as a real-time advantage.
Global instability is not temporary; it is the operating environment. For South African fintechs, that reality raises the bar for delivery, demanding realism about risk, grounding in local conditions, and readiness for disruption.
The world may be unpredictable, but South African fintech doesn’t have to be. Teams that already juggle township entrepreneurs and corporate customers simultaneously have the flexibility global shocks demand. Agility – navigating uncertainty while keeping execution on track – is what turns instability into strength.