Lagos is positioning itself at the centre of Africa’s rapidly evolving financial landscape with the launch of MINT AFRICA by GITEX, a new platform designed to bring together capital, technology, regulation and infrastructure to shape the continent’s next generation of financial services.
Announced in Lagos as part of GITEX NIGERIA week 2027, the future finance platform will convene governments, regulators, banks, institutional investors, fintech companies, technology providers and digital-asset innovators at a time when fundamental assumptions about money and financial markets are being rewritten.
From programmable money and tokenised real-world assets to agentic artificial intelligence, stablecoins and interoperable payment systems, emerging technologies are rapidly transforming how financial services are created, delivered and regulated.
For Africa, the shift presents an opportunity that extends beyond adopting new financial technologies. It offers the continent a chance to participate in defining the architecture of the next global financial economy.
And Lagos, with Nigeria’s scale, fintech depth, entrepreneurial ecosystem and growing digital economy, is seeking to take a leading role in that transformation.
The launch follows the sell-out GITEX NIGERIA, with MINT AFRICA by GITEX 2027 expanding the event’s mandate into a dedicated platform connecting capital, policy, regulation, infrastructure and frontier financial technologies across Africa.
Developed in partnership with the Lagos State Government, MINT AFRICA will debut during GITEX NIGERIA week, leveraging GITEX’s international network of technology companies, investors and governments to connect Africa’s financial ambitions with global capital and innovation.
Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, 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.”
Tunbosun Alake, Honourable Commissioner for the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Lagos State, said the platform was designed to bridge the gap between financial innovation and actual investment.
“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.”
From financial inclusion to financial reinvention
The scale of the opportunity is significant. Africa’s digital payments economy is projected to reach US$1.5 trillion by 2030, while the African Development Bank estimates that reforms covering capital markets, domestic resource mobilisation and public-private partnerships could unlock as much as US$1.43 trillion in financing annually. Yet, major gaps in financial access and formal financing remain.
In Nigeria, adult account ownership rose from 45.3 per cent in 2021 to 63.3 per cent in 2024, while only 9.1 per cent of adults borrowed through formal financial channels.
MINT AFRICA by GITEX is expected to examine how technology and regulatory innovation can help convert these gaps into economic opportunities by expanding access to capital, modernising financial infrastructure and enabling more African consumers and businesses to participate in the digital economy.
Its agenda will cover 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 deeper financial inclusion would be critical to achieving the country’s economic ambitions.
“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.”
Infrastructure and regulation take centre stage
While technology is accelerating financial innovation, stakeholders at MINT AFRICA stressed that technology alone will not determine which markets emerge as leaders.
Infrastructure, regulation, digital identity, connectivity, power and investor confidence will be equally decisive in determining where Africa’s next financial economy takes root.
Engr. Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband and Innovation to the Governor of Lagos State, said: “Infrastructure is policy. You cannot simply regulate an economy into existence. For a digital economy, the roads are connectivity, power, identity and talent. Lagos has spent seven years building all four.”
He also issued a direct invitation to international investors, arguing that Lagos should be viewed not merely as a promising market but as an operational base for Africa’s digital financial future.
“Lagos is asking you to price us correctly. We would rather have your capital than your admiration, and we would rather have your operational presence than your capital. Africa’s financial future will be tokenised, programmable and cross-border. It will settle somewhere. It should settle in Lagos.”
The evolution of digital finance is also raising fundamental questions about who owns and benefits from the assets being created through emerging technologies.
Dr Armstrong Ume Takang, CEO, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Nigeria, said: “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? Or are we going to become active participants in the evolving digital asset ecosystem?”
The increasingly borderless nature of digital assets is simultaneously creating pressure for greater regulatory cooperation across African markets.
Tahiru Al Hassan, Head of Oversight and Compliance, Virtual Assets Department, Bank of Ghana, said:
“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.”
Why Lagos, why GITEX and why now?
The decision to place MINT AFRICA by GITEX 2027 within GITEX NIGERIA week reflects a growing convergence between financial services and technology.
Artificial intelligence is moving beyond a supporting role to become part of financial infrastructure. Tokenisation is creating new connections between technology and capital markets. Digital identity is linking citizens and businesses to financial services, while regulation is increasingly having to evolve alongside innovation.
At the same time, the availability and direction of investment will determine which African markets successfully move from experimentation to commercial scale.
MINT AFRICA by GITEX will seek to bring these forces together through GITEX’s international network of technology companies, governments, investors and innovators, with Lagos serving as the marketplace and Africa as its wider mandate.
Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of GITEX, 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 is becoming programmable, and financial markets are 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.”