The Africa Fintech Summit has announced Safaricom’s M-PESA, Africa’s mobile money pioneer, as Gold Sponsor for the Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) 2024. This will be held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, from 4-6 September 2024.
The partnership comes at a time when, 17 years after its initial launch in 2017, M-PESA now controls about 96.5% of the Kenyan mobile money market. Additionally, it serves 60+ million customers in seven African countries while processing 150 million daily transactions valued at $1 billion, and facilitating $4 billion in annual cross-border transactions, among other impressive milestones.
Today, M-PESA customers can run a cashless daily life with end-to-end services and products through the M-PESA payment app. They can also transfer funds using mobile numbers via its Tuma Popote services, take loans, and expand their businesses via its Lipa Na Mpesa services.
Parents can raise financially savvy 10-17-year-olds via its M-PESA GO app, Users can earn better saving rates via its M-Shwari saving product and send funds to and from millions of bank accounts and wallets globally, This is through its M-PESA Global services in partnership with Paypal and Western Union.
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Showcasing 17 Years of Fintech Innovation
Commenting on the partnership with the Africa Fintech Summit for this year’s edition, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO of M-PESA Africa, noted,
“As a pioneering African digital financial service innovator, M-PESA has evolved to a full suite FinTech operator that has digitized cash and made life easier for millions of clients across the continent.
As we celebrate our 17 years of bringing digital empowerment and financial inclusion to millions in Africa, we are excited to amplify our fintech innovation from ‘Kenya to the World’ and showcase how M-PESA is changing lives and empowering businesses, which very much aligns with the theme of this year’s AFTS, which is ‘Fintech in Every Industry.’”
“It is with immense gratitude and great delight that we welcome M-PESA as Gold Sponsor for the 12th edition of the Africa Fintech Summit in Nairobi this year.
Mobile money innovation is synonymous with Kenya and M-PESA, and it is such a delight to have M-PESA showcase the impact of their 17 years of continued innovation to our global audience.
This is particularly important, as we highlighted M-PESA’s success story back in 2021 at #AFTSCairo in a fireside chat titled Kenyan Innovation – From M-PESA to Tomorrow – Africa Fintech Summit Cairo 2021.
Building on that session, the 12th edition of the summit here in Nairobi will give first-hand testimonies of M-PESA’s success story, impact on lives, and future trajectory,” said Zekarias Amsalu, Co-founder of AFTS and MD of Ibex Frontier.
Africa Fintech Summit: Leading Africa’s Fintech Revolution
Since its first summit in 2018, the Africa Fintech Summit has become the largest annual financial technology gathering on the African continent.
In addition to its partnership with M-PESA, AFTS is supported by The Association of Fintechs in Kenya( AFIK), which is a strategic partner to AFTS and will bring a diverse cohort of partners and sponsors.
#AFTSNAIROBI2024 will bring Keynote Speeches from Kenyan policymakers & AfCFTA as well as a VIP dinner for Speakers and invited guests on the night of 04 April; panels, workshops, and fireside chats on 05 September; Masterclasses for Startup Founders, Alpha Expo Pitch Competition & Ecosystem tours on the 06th September. The event will conclude with a happy hour for delegates and attendees on both the 5th & 6th of September.
More than just a conference, AFTS brings the issues, entrepreneurs, and opportunities revolutionizing finance in Africa to the world’s stage.
AFTS has hosted ten previous summits having hosted 5 editions in Washington, DC and 5 more editions in Lagos, Addis Ababa, Cairo, Cape Town, and Lusaka.
Over the past ten summits, AFTS has supported Over USD 125M in capital raise efforts for African fintech startups, Groundbreaking launch of US-government funded Prosper Africa Tech for Trade Alliance launch at our 9th Edition in 2023, Public discourse and debate surrounding industry trends, brand building, and awareness opportunities across global fintech media, knowledge sharing between banking/fintech operators with regulators, active engagement and inclusion of regulatory authorities in continental fintech conversation, and bring the largest source of truth for announcements of financial technology innovation, and strategic partnerships across the continent and globally.
As in the past years, the event will be hybrid, with live streaming provided for remote attendees via our website. Limited tickets to the 12th Edition summit are now available. Secure your passes now on the website: https://www.africafintechsummit.com/.