The growth of financial technology and mobile payment platforms has registered tremendous growth in Africa over the last decade and is expected to reach eye-watering US$ 3B according to a finance analysis media entity
Close to US$100m of fundraising has been injected already in 2018 into Africa’s bourgeoning fintech and mobile payments sector, with a significant amount of capital still to be deployed this year, and prospects for the sector looking bullish, according to telecom, media and tech news and events company, TMT Finance.
East Africa has been a great receiver of investments in the fintech area with Kenyan start-ups fetching a great percentage of the cake.
Demands for services are also tipped to see a large uptick: financial transactions made via the internet or a mobile phone are expected to grow from US$200m at the moment to an eyewatering US$3bn by 2020, according to a recent report by pan-African banking group Ecobank.
Regulation, access to reliable and affordable internet and the development of blockchain are also all key topics affecting Africa’s Fintech sector, according to d’Arrast. “We expect B2B lending platforms and anti-fraud startups to attract most interest from investors. Venture capital funds are playing an important role – both local firms and international investors often originating from Europe or the USA” he said.
A deeper dive into how to grow and scale fintech companies in Africa will also take place earlier in the day at the conference on a dedicated breakout session, with CEOs and MDs represented from Verdant Capital, goAfrica, Strider, Transsnet Payments, MFS Africa Ltd, One Finance & Investment Limited and chaired by advisory firm Obsidian Occident.
Over 70 key speakers have been announced for the event, with CxOs and senior executives also confirmed from companies including Orange, IHS Towers, Econet Wireless, Millicom Africa, The Carlyle Group, Standard Bank, PAIX, East Africa Data Centre, Ethos Private Equity, Rack Centre, Jumia, Uber, Intelsat, Huawei, Credit Suisse and World Remit, among others.
Source: The Exchange
