“Fintech,” the common industry abbreviation for the financial technology industry, remains to be a leading driver for the advancement of financial inclusion, literacy, and access across Africa.
Africa’s fintech industry raised over $2B USD of disclosed funding in 2022 (according to data sourced from Briter Bridges), a figure which was well below a billion just a few years ago. As the global fintech industry began gaining traction in the 2010’s, fintech in Africa has also grown. Global venture capital has been experiencing a considerable slowdown but African fintech has been one of the few industries which has continued to grow.
55 AU-recognized countries with 42 different national currencies and a diaspora covering every corner of the planet make cross-border collaboration and partnership a key tenet in the advancement of financial technology. At the recently concluded US-Africa Leaders Summit hosted in Washington, DC this past December, the Biden-Harris Administration reiterated the US’ commitment to African governments, businesses, and people.
Continuing the conversations sparked at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, the 9th edition of the Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) is coming back to Washington, DC on April 14th as a sideline event of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings. Innovators, investors, regulators, and ecosystem enablers alike will come together to discuss, debate, and collaborate on ways the African financial technology industry can grow and continue to be an underlying force for financial inclusion and advancing financial literacy across Africa. AFTS has had a massive impact on bringing investors, multinational corporations, banks, DFI’s, and governments together for the advancement of African fintech. Since its founding in 2017, AFTS has hosted over 5,000 delegates from over 100 countries and have directly contributed to hundreds of millions of dollars in startup investment flowing to African founders.
The summit is hosted bi-annually with its first summit in Washington, DC each April and again each November in a different African host city. AFTS has previously been hosted in Cape Town, Cairo, Addis Ababa, and Lagos – organizers are soon announcing the host city for its November 2023 summit. The current state of financial technology in Africa is far from perfect and much work must continue to be done to ensure that Africans at home and abroad are able to financially navigate complexity with ease and confidence. The upcoming AFTS seeks to make the ‘next steps’ for the industry a centerpiece at its upcoming Washington DC event.
Interoperability in payments and cross-border transfers, access to finance for Africans and the SME’s underpinning the economy, and ways different regulators can collaborate to ensure the safe, responsible, and ethical advancement of Africa’s financial technology are just a brief overview of the many topics the Africa Fintech Summit plans to tackle in Washington, DC.
AFTS co-founder, Zekarias Amsalu mentioned, “We are excited to continue building off the momentum established at the US-Africa Leaders Summit. We look forward to working with a wide array of local and international partners such as Prosper Africa, Corporate Council on Africa, African Media Agency, and many others in ensuring that African fintechs have the tools to continue solving one of Africa’s most pressing challenges: money. We always aim to support African opportunities and ensure success stories are well amplified for global investors and partners.”
Whether you are a senior executive at a Wall Street investment bank, the founder of an African fintech startup, or a student interested in learning more and taking part in the conversation around the industry, registration is now open subscribe to TANTV to get 50% discount code.
