BY ALAN GREEN

The 9th edition of the Africa Fintech Summit will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, April 12 in Washington, concurrently with the 2023 World Bank/IFC meetings which kicked off on Monday, running through the 16th. The summit proper will be preceded tonight by the VIP Dinner, an exclusive dinner for the delegates, speakers, sponsors, regulators, and the event’s partners.

Fintech, the short for “financial technology,” refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services: Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, big data, and more. The following is the summit’s mission statement:

“The Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) is a global forum where fintech stakeholders gather to form partnerships, mobilize investments, showcase innovations, collectively address and solve industry challenges, identify trends, and shape policies toward the vision of a thriving African fintech ecosystem built on the spirit of collaboration.”

The initiators see Africa as “uniquely positioned to be a leader in fintech,” with “unprecedented business opportunities.” They feel “African fintech can transform individual lives and national economies through financial inclusion and sustainable economic growth.” Their stated vision is also “to be a catalyst for this potential by enabling investments, informing smarter regulations, and fostering greater collaboration across diverse sectors and geographies.”

Founded in 2017, The Africa Fintech Summit aims at “bringing the issues, trends, and changemakers impacting Africa’s financial technology ecosystem together.” It is the largest bi-annual gathering of financial technology stakeholders on the continent, welcoming over 4,000 stakeholders from across over 100 countries since the first summit was held in early 2018.

Panel discussions, a key component of the event, will bring together innovators, regulators, investors, and enablers to focus on issues that impact Africa and the diaspora.

The event will climax into the announcement of the 2023 winners in Fintech awards. The Annual Excellence in Fintech Awards Ceremony rewards extraordinary fintech startups and industry stakeholders for their impact, technology, and vision.

Not surprisingly, given the partnership the Biden administration committed itself to carry out during the Second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held last December in Washington, the U.S. State Department is a partner in this biannual event.

In a statement attributed on Tuesday, April 11 to the U.S. State Department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Ramin Toloui, will provide opening remarks at the summit. Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs, Dilawar Syed, Managing Director for Global Partnerships, Thomas Debass, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs, Joy Basu, will also participate in the event.