Lagos is positioning itself at the center of Africa's emerging financial revolution with the launch of MINT AFRICA by GITEX, a new platform designed to bring together capital, technology, regulation, and innovation. The platform will debut during GITEX NIGERIA Week 2027 in partnership with the Lagos State Government. This launch comes at a critical moment when the boundaries between finance and technology are rapidly disappearing. Technologies such as programmable money, tokenized real-world assets, and stablecoins are increasingly becoming part of modern economies.
Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, described the decision to locate the new platform in Lagos as a recognition of the state's growing economic importance. He stated that Lagos is increasingly becoming a consequential destination for technology, investment, and digital transformation, with developments in the city capable of influencing the wider African market. According to him, the next chapter of African finance will not simply arrive; it will be built in Lagos.
The launch of MINT AFRICA reflects the growing recognition that Africa's financial future will be determined not merely by the expansion of conventional banking and fintech, but by the convergence of finance with frontier technologies. The continent is already experiencing rapid growth in digital payments, fintech, and mobile financial services. Yet millions of individuals and businesses remain outside formal financial systems, while access to affordable credit and investment capital remains severely constrained.
Africa's digital payments economy is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, highlighting the scale of the opportunity before financial institutions, technology companies, and investors. The African Development Bank has also estimated that reforms covering deeper capital markets, stronger domestic resource mobilization, and public-private partnerships could unlock as much as $1.43 trillion in financing annually. However, the continent's financial transformation remains uneven.
In Nigeria, adult account ownership rose from 45.3 percent in 2021 to 63.3 percent in 2024. Yet only 9.1 percent of Nigerians borrowed through formal financial channels, underscoring the gap between access to accounts and meaningful access to finance. MINT AFRICA is being positioned as a platform for addressing precisely that gap. Tunbosun Alake, Lagos State Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology, said Africa's problem was no longer necessarily a lack of financial innovation, but the failure to convert innovation into capital, partnerships, and scalable businesses.
The platform will bring governments, regulators, banks, institutional investors, fintech companies, technology firms, and digital-asset innovators into the same ecosystem. Its agenda will cover some of the most disruptive developments reshaping the global financial system, including tokenization and real-world assets, agentic artificial intelligence, intelligent banking, stablecoins, and digital currencies. Engr. Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband, and Innovation to the Lagos State Governor, stressed that a digital economy could not be built through regulation alone.
Oseni issued a direct invitation to international investors, stating that Lagos is asking them to price the state correctly and invest in its digital economy. He emphasized that Africa's financial future will be tokenized, programmable, and cross-border, and it should settle in Lagos. Dr. Armstrong Ume Takang, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Nigeria, said African countries must avoid repeating a pattern in which foreign investors identify and capture value from assets while local populations remain spectators.
Key points
- Lagos State Government partners with GITEX to launch MINT AFRICA, a platform for digital finance innovation.
- Africa's digital payments economy is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030.
- The platform aims to address the gap between access to accounts and meaningful access to finance in Africa.
