Africa Fintech Summit Returns To Washington D.C. This April For Its Seventh Edition

The seventh Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) is set to hold at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Centre, Washington, D.C, on April 21st, 2022. 

The Africa Fintech Summit is one of the leading fintech events in Africa that brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, technology leaders, policymakers, industry experts, and investors to discuss the future of financial technology across the African continent. #AFTSDC2022 would create opportunities for open dialogues between CEOs, Founders, policymakers, and critical thinkers whose work has significantly impacted Africa’s financial services ecosystem. 

Over the past six summits, AFTS has supported:

• Over USD 40 M in capital raise efforts for African startups
• AFTS Alpha Expo participants who have gone on to raise over USD 78 M, including five Y Combinator alumni – Wallets.Africa, Payhippo, Dayra, MarketForce, and CrowdForce
• Startup Launch – Bamboo launched its product at AFTS D.C. in 2019 and has since raised over USD 15 M in seed funding.
• The launch of strategic partnerships and new businesses – Following a meeting between executives of both companies at AFTS Addis 2019, Sudeico Holdings made a 50% investment into Mairshapay.
• Market entry for multinational corporations looking to enter the regional fintech market.
• Policy guideline creation – AFTS Cairo saw delegates from DRC’s and Egypt’s Central Banks meet to discuss building a more collaborative Pan-African fintech regulatory framework
• The growth of local tech and startup ecosystems
• Knowledge sharing for African banking/fintech operators and regulators

The first edition of the Africa Fintech Summit took place at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C, on April 19th, 2018. In November 2018, Lagos, Nigeria, hosted the 2nd edition of the summit. And with over 500 attendees, including 98 founders, the event’s numbers bested those of the D.C. edition. 

2019 saw the summit return to Washington D.C. for the second time. In November of the same year, Ethiopia became the second African nation to host an AFTS edition. With 431 attendees from 30 countries and 19 value-driven sessions, the summit easily engaged attendees and drove rich conversations.

“The 2019 Africa Fintech Summit was a great avenue to address and subsequently have conversations with great minds focused on the growth of fintech in Africa.” – Jim Ovia, Founder and Chairman, Zenith Bank.

AFTS Cairo 2021 ushered in a new format for the summit as organizers opted for a hybrid event that supported in-person and virtual participation. The conference had about 1350 stakeholders representing over $2.5 billion in private equity and venture capital in attendance, including students from 17 universities who joined virtually. 

The panel sessions featured top players from the finance and technology sectors, regulators, investors, and government officials, including Dr. Rasha Negm, Assistant Sub-governor, Fintech and Innovation, Central Bank of Egypt, Hossam Ezz, CEO, Fawry FMCG, and Fawry Plus for Banking Services, Omosalewa Adeyemi, Global Head of Partnerships and Expansion, Flutterwave, Falgu Shah, Head Business Operations and Expansion, Paystack, Djiba Diallo, Senior Fintech Advisor, Ecobank and more.

AFTS Cairo also saw a massive representation of global and local institutions from tech giants like Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon to fintech companies such as Paga, Chippercash, accelerators, and venture capital firms and accelerators like Launch Africa Ventures and AUC Venture Lab to educational institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“Great event!! It was well organized with the right discussion topics with great speakers on all panels. Key was the covering of real issues in emerging markets and addressing them from an African perspective.” – Praveen Sadalage, Vice President Commercial Operations Africa, Emergent Technologies.”

Catch some of the insightful moments from the Cairo Edition here;

The success of all six previous editions of the Africa Fintech Summit has predicated a seventh. And so, AFTS will be returning to Washington, D.C, on April 21st, 2022, for a seventh edition.

This summit will cover key topics, and trends summarized in the theme, “The  Africanization of Global Fintech,” which entails:

● The legitimization of African fintech as a global asset class.

● The expansion of African fintech beyond the continent.

● The “Africanization” of the fintech sector through an increased focus on homegrown tech talent and locally-sourced funding.

With over 60 accomplished experts speaking on different topics ranging from digital banking to VC trends across Africa and over 400 expected attendees from 40+ countries, AFTSDC2022 promises to be the perfect stage for these conversations.

Amongst those expected to speak at the event includes; Mike Ogbalu, CEO, Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPPS), Djiba Diallo, Senior Fintech Advisor, Ecobank, Tosin Eniolorunda, CEO TeamApt, Ray Youssef, CEO and Co-Founder, Paxful, Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-Founder & COO, Piggyvest, Ham Serunjogi, CEO, Chipper Cash, Zach Bijesse, Co-Founder & CEO, Payhippo, Chris Maurice, CEO, Yellow Card, Chike Ukaegbu, Head of Crypto Strategy in Emerging Markets at Visa,  and more.

Organizers have structured the event to include:

• 12 Live Discussion Panels and Roundtables exploring Africa’s Technological Inflection Point, Diaspora Banking and Remittance, VC Trends across Africa, Digital Banking, Web 3, Cryptocurrency, Fintech Regulatory Best Practices, and more.
• Catered Networking Lunch
• Startup Exhibition
• 2022 AFTS Awards and more.

On the impact of past editions of the Africa Fintech Summit, some attendees had this to say:

“I haven’t been to a more impactful event geared towards facilitating stakeholder conversations, investments, and policy frameworks around the fintech space in Africa in a long time. I was able to take away fresh perspective, actionable insights, and new business relationships from the summit. I would highly recommend the AFTS to anyone in this space.” – Olu Oyinsan, VP of Investments, Ingressive Capital.

Participate in this year’s event by getting tickets on the Africa Fintech Summit website.