By Dickson Omobola
GITEX NIGERIA has concluded plans to explore how new technologies and regulatory models can widen access to capital, modernise financial infrastructure and enable African consumers and enterprises to participate more fully in the digital economy, saying MINT AFRICA is the solution.
GITEX NIGERIA, which announced the launch of MINT AFRICA by GITEX in partnership with the Lagos State government, said MINT AFRICA by GITEX will debut during GITEX NIGERIA Week, leveraging GITEX’s global technology, investor and government network to connect Africa’s financial ambitions with international capital and innovation.
MINT AFRICA, launching in Lagos as part of GITEX NIGERIA Week 2027, is a new future finance platform bringing together money, innovation, new technology and transparency to accelerate the transformation of Africa’s financial economy.
Money is becoming programmable. Real-world assets are being tokenised. Agentic AI is beginning to transform how financial services are delivered and decisions are made. Stablecoins and digital assets are challenging traditional rails, while AI, digital identity, cybersecurity and interoperable payment infrastructure are becoming fundamental economic infrastructure.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest fintech ecosystem, while Lagos has produced some of the continent’s most consequential fintech companies and sits at the intersection of immense market scale, entrepreneurial talent, capital and an increasingly ambitious digital economy.
Speaking on the development, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Kadri Hamzat, said: “When GITEX came to Nigeria, Lagos became a commercial anchor. That was not a courtesy extended to us; it was a commercial judgement. Exhibitions follow markets, and markets follow scale, capital and momentum – all of which converge here.
“Lagos is a consequential destination, and what happens here helps shape Africa’s digital transformation trajectory. The next chapter of African finance will not simply arrive; it will be built here, together.”
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Lagos State, Tunbosun Alake, added: “Africa doesn’t have a shortage of financial innovation. It has a shortage of the conversations that turn innovation into signed deals. The future of finance week is built to close that gap, not to celebrate it.”
Meanwhile, Africa’s digital payments economy is projected to reach US$1.5 trillion by 2030, while the African Development Bank estimates that reforms spanning deeper capital markets, stronger domestic resource mobilisation and public-private partnerships could unlock as much as US$1.43 trillion in financing annually.
Yet significant gaps remain. In Nigeria, adult account ownership increased from 45.3 per cent in 2021 to 63.3 per cent in 2024, while only 9.1 per cent borrowed through formal financial channels.
MINT AFRICA by GITEX will focus on converting this gap into economic opportunity, exploring how new technologies and regulatory models can widen access to capital, modernise financial infrastructure and enable African consumers and enterprises to participate more fully in the digital economy.
Its agenda will span tokenisation and real-world assets; agentic AI and intelligent banking; stablecoins and digital currencies; next-generation payments; digital identity; cybersecurity and trust; financial infrastructure; cross-border interoperability; regulatory innovation; capital markets; and investment in Africa’s fintech economy.
Dr Nurudeen Abubakar Zauro, Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Nigeria, said: “The target of achieving a US$1 trillion economy means investment, financial sector deepening, formalisation of the informal sector and enhancing economic inclusion so that the benefits can reach the last mile. It also means bringing more people into the formal financial sector and supporting our ambitious MSMEs with the financing they need to scale.”
CEO of GITEX, Trixie LohMirmand, said: “Nigeria leads Africa’s fintech revolution. Its scale, talent and ambition make Lagos the deserving metropolis for MINT AFRICA by GITEX.
“But the next chapter goes far beyond fintech. AI is becoming agentic, assets are becoming tokenised, money programmable and financial markets increasingly borderless. Africa has an opportunity not merely to participate in this transition, but to shape it.
“Lagos is already home to the innovators redefining how money moves across this continent. With MINT AFRICA by GITEX at GITEX NIGERIA, our ambition is to bring together the technology, regulation, infrastructure and global capital required to turn that innovation into Africa’s next financial economy.”