Data from financial messaging service provider SWIFT showed that in the first four months of 2017, total message traffic volumes grew by 15.2% year on year compared with global growth of 6.4%. This was an acceleration from growth rates of 12.8% and 5.4% respectively in the same period last year, showing that global and African growth is accelerating. SWIFT provides financial messaging for more than 10‚000 banks‚ securities institutions and corporate customers in 212 countries and territories. Compound annual growth for Africa has been consistently above the global average and was 13% since 2012. SWIFT said the growth in Africa was underpinned by a significant increase in payments traffic, as many countries in Africa continue to see relatively stable economic growth despite the downturn in commodity prices since 2011. African payment traffic volumes grew by 16.9% versus 11.6% for the same period last year with growth in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region at 21.6...
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