Gitex Nigeria launches MINT AFRICA by GITEX as Lagos stakes its claim on the future of finance
Omeiza Bilal
The financial future of Africa took a bold step forward today as GITEX Nigeria announced the launch of MINT AFRICA by GITEX, a groundbreaking platform designed to accelerate the transformation of the continent’s financial economy.
Unveiled during GITEX Nigeria Week 2027, MINT AFRICA by GITEX will serve as a convergence point for governments, regulators, banks, institutional investors, fintechs, technology companies, and digital-asset innovators. Its mission: to redefine how money, innovation, and transparency intersect in Africa’s rapidly evolving financial landscape.
Lagos at the heart of Africa’s financial reinvention
The choice of Lagos as the launchpad is no accident. Nigeria hosts Africa’s largest fintech ecosystem, and Lagos has produced some of the continent’s most influential fintech companies. With its immense market scale, entrepreneurial talent, and ambitious digital economy, Lagos is positioning itself as the epicenter of Africa’s financial reinvention.
Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, emphasized the city’s pivotal role: “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.”
Finance rewritten: programmable money and tokenised assets
The launch comes at a critical inflection point for global finance. Money is becoming programmable, real-world assets are being tokenised, and agentic AI is transforming how financial services are delivered.
Stablecoins and digital assets are challenging traditional rails, while digital identity, cybersecurity, and interoperable payment infrastructure are becoming essential economic foundations.For Africa, these shifts represent not just adoption but leadership.
Lagos is staking its claim to help define the next generation of finance.
From inclusion to reinventionAfrica’s digital payments economy is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, while reforms could unlock $1.43 trillion annually in financing, according to the African Development Bank.
Yet gaps remain: in Nigeria, adult account ownership rose to 63.3% in 2024, but only 9.1% borrowed through formal financial channels.
Tunbosun Alake, Lagos State Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology, noted:“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.”
MINT AFRICA by GITEX will tackle these challenges head-on, with an agenda spanning tokenisation, AI-driven banking, stablecoins, next-generation payments, digital identity, cybersecurity, regulatory innovation, and investment into Africa’s fintech economy.
Building the rails for Africa’s financial futureSpeakers underscored that technology alone will not determine the winners of the next financial era. Infrastructure, regulation, and investor confidence will be decisive.
Engr. Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology to the Lagos Governor, stressed:“Infrastructure is policy. For a digital economy, the roads are connectivity, power, identity and talent. Lagos has spent seven years building all four.”
His message to global investors was clear: Lagos wants capital and operational presence, not just admiration.
A continental call for coordination
The urgency of regulatory alignment was highlighted by Tahiru Al Hassan, Head of Oversight and Compliance at the Bank of Ghana:“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.”
Why Lagos. Why GITEX. Why now
The integration of MINT AFRICA into GITEX Nigeria underscores the inseparability of finance and technology. AI is becoming financial infrastructure, tokenisation is linking technology with capital markets, and digital identity is connecting citizens with services.
Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of GITEX, summed up the ambition:“Nigeria leads Africa’s fintech revolution. Lagos is already home to innovators redefining how money moves across this continent. With MINT AFRICA by GITEX, our ambition is to bring together the technology, regulation, infrastructure and global capital required to turn that innovation into Africa’s next financial economy.”
As Lagos positions itself as the marketplace for Africa’s financial transformation, MINT AFRICA by GITEX signals a new era where programmable money, tokenised assets, and agentic AI converge to shape the continent’s destiny.
