GITEX Nigeria has announced the launch of MINT AFRICA by GITEX, a new platform focused on financial technology, digital assets, artificial intelligence and the infrastructure expected to shape Africa’s next financial economy.
The platform will debut during GITEX NIGERIA Week in 2027, bringing together governments, regulators, banks, institutional investors, fintech companies and technology firms as Lagos seeks to strengthen its position as a hub for Africa’s rapidly evolving financial sector.
MINT AFRICA will focus on the growing convergence of finance and emerging technology, including programmable money, tokenised real-world assets, agentic artificial intelligence, stablecoins, digital identity, cybersecurity and cross-border payments.
The launch comes as African economies and financial institutions confront a period of significant technological change. Digital assets are challenging traditional payment systems, while AI is beginning to influence how financial institutions make decisions and deliver services.
For Nigeria, which has one of Africa’s largest fintech ecosystems, the shift presents an opportunity to move beyond adopting new financial technologies to helping shape how they develop across the continent.
“Lagos is a consequential destination and what happens here helps shape Africa’s digital transformation trajectory,” said Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governor of Lagos State.
“The next chapter of African finance will not simply arrive; it will be built here, together.”
The platform is being launched in partnership with the Lagos State Government and will leverage GITEX’s international network of technology companies, investors and governments to connect African financial innovation with global capital.
Tunbosun Alake, Lagos State commissioner for innovation, science and technology, said Africa’s challenge was no longer generating financial innovation.
“Africa doesn’t have a shortage of financial innovation. It has a shortage of the conversations that turn innovation into signed deals,” Alake said.
The launch comes as Africa’s digital financial economy continues to expand.
Africa’s digital payments market is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, while the African Development Bank has estimated that reforms involving stronger capital markets, domestic resource mobilisation and public-private partnerships could unlock up to $1.43 trillion in financing annually.
However, access to financial services and formal credit remains uneven.
MINT AFRICA will examine how technology and regulatory reforms can help close those gaps by expanding access to capital, modernising financial infrastructure and enabling more consumers and businesses to participate in the digital economy.
Its agenda will include tokenisation, real-world assets, AI-powered banking, stablecoins, digital currencies, next-generation payments, digital identity, cybersecurity, cross-border interoperability, capital markets and investment in African fintech companies.
Nurudeen Zauro, technical adviser to the Nigerian president on economic and financial inclusion, said Nigeria’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy would depend partly on deeper financial inclusion and stronger access to capital.
“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,” Zauro said.
“It also means bringing more people into the formal financial sector and supporting our ambitious MSMEs with the financing they need to scale.”
While emerging technologies are expected to transform financial services, speakers at the announcement stressed that infrastructure and regulation will be equally important.
Ganiyu Oseni, special adviser on technology, broadband and innovation to the Lagos State governor, said digital economies could not be built through regulation alone.
“For a digital economy, the roads are connectivity, power, identity and talent,” Oseni said, adding that Lagos had spent years investing in those areas.
He argued that the next phase of African finance would become tokenised, programmable and cross-border, creating competition among major cities for the capital and companies building that infrastructure.
The rise of digital assets is also creating pressure for greater regulatory coordination across African markets.
Tahiru Al Hassan, head of oversight and compliance at the Virtual Assets Department of the Bank of Ghana, said greater cooperation would be necessary as digital assets operate across national borders.
“Greater regulatory coordination across Africa will be essential to addressing the inherently cross-border nature of digital assets, avoiding unnecessary fragmentation and building trusted, interoperable ecosystems across the continent,” he said.
Armstrong Takang, chief executive of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, also highlighted the potential impact of tokenisation on investment and asset ownership.
“As we create digital tools that allow us to tokenise assets and make those assets widely available to investors, are Nigerians going to continue taking a back seat while others see the value, invest and benefit from the upside?” Takang said.
MINT AFRICA will be held alongside GITEX NIGERIA, which reflects the blurred lines between technology and financial services.
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of financial infrastructure, digital identity is expanding access to services, while tokenisation is connecting technology companies with capital markets.
Investment and regulation will determine which markets are able to move these technologies from experimentation to commercial scale.
Trixie LohMirmand, chief executive of GITEX, said Lagos was well positioned to host a platform focused on the next phase of African finance.
“Nigeria leads Africa’s fintech revolution. Its scale, talent and ambition make Lagos the deserving metropolis for MINT AFRICA by GITEX,” she said.
“But the next chapter goes far beyond fintech. AI is becoming agentic, assets are becoming tokenised, money programmable and financial markets increasingly borderless.”
The launch represents another attempt to position Lagos not just as Africa’s largest startup and fintech market, but as a meeting point for the regulators, investors, infrastructure providers and technology companies expected to shape the continent’s financial future.
MINT AFRICA by GITEX will make that ambition one of the centrepieces of GITEX NIGERIA Week in 2027.
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