Across Africa, financial institutions are under mounting pressure to modernise. Global network architectures are shifting dramatically: the SDWAN market alone is set to skyrocket from around $10 billion in 2025 to approximately $32.5 billion by 2030, while the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market is projeté to leap from around $15.5 billion in 2025 to nearly $44.7 billion by 2030.
In South Africa, managed SDWAN et SASE services are similarly gaining ground, especially across banking, government, mining et retail. Legacy networks are no longer viable; they’re bottlenecks in an era defined by remote work, cloud-first strategies, and demand for zero-trust security.
In markets like Angola and Zimbabwe, financial institutions face similar challenges: fragmented networks, multi–provider complexity, and the strain of maintaining uptime across dozens or hundreds of sites. This is not unique to Africa but is mirrored globally where over 70% of enterprises are implementing or planning SD–WAN, often pairing it with advanced security architectures like SASE and LTE resilience. But in many African markets, SD-WAN and SASE awareness remains limited, and that is exactly where we see the greatest opportunity.
Listening to add value
Our approach always begins with listening. We do not start with a product pitch. Instead, we ask clients to outline their network worries: inconsistent performance, limited visibility, unpredictable failover, or regions with poor infrastructure. This human-first method reveals very real, high-stakes problems and paves the way for genuine transformation.
Across multiple African territories, financial institutions with extensive branch networks are grappling with ageing, multi-provider infrastructure that offers little visibility and even less control. In several engagements, we began with a limited proof of concept at high-complexity sites to demonstrate what real-time analytics, dynamic path selection, and automated failover could deliver. Once teams experienced the operational impact firsthand, organisations rapidly scaled the model across their broader networks.
In parallel, many banks operating both metropolitan branches and rural service kiosks face a persistent reliability gap. Connectivity in remote areas is fragile, yet essential for customer-facing services. By integrating LTE-enabled SD-WAN into a diversified access approach, we have been able to stabilise these environments, maintain uptime during link failures, and give IT teams far more confidence in day-to-day operations.
Digital banking growth
Throughout the continent, digital banking is surging, but resilient infrastructure is still catching up. Projects backed by fintech, telcos, and regulators are driving adoption, but banks need networks that are cloud-ready, secure, and scalable. The global SDWAN trend backs this. CAGR projections range from 32% to nearly 40% through 2030.
The African financial services landscape is not homogeneous. Each market moves at its own pace. Some countries have made the leap toward cloud and software-defined infrastructure; others are just beginning. But the need for resilient, scalable, and secure networking is universal. Banks across the continent are ready to embrace modernisation.
In South Africa, the managed SDWAN market is accelerating rapidly. Reports show strong demand emerging across sectors including BFSI, retail, mining, healthcare, and government, a signal that the infrastructure waves we are riding are not localised but continental.
In today’s world, bankers need more than that connectivity, they need edge intelligence.