Coura Carine Tine Sene, Regional Director of Wave Mobile Money Group, has emphasized the importance of financial inclusion in Africa's digital revolution. According to Sene, the true measure of financial innovation is not the awards it attracts or the technology it introduces, but the difference it makes in people's everyday lives. Wave Mobile Money's recognition at the Africa Financial Industry Summit (AFIS) 2026 in Luanda, Angola, as African Disrupter of the Year, highlights the company's contribution to expanding affordable digital financial services.
Wave serves more than 25 million monthly active users across 11 African markets and has received the African Disrupter Award in recognition of its efforts. Sene's message is that Africa's financial revolution must create genuine opportunities for ordinary citizens, particularly women entrepreneurs and communities historically excluded from formal financial services. The company's achievement provides a fitting backdrop to those reflections, and Sene sees the recognition as an opportunity to consider the responsibilities that come with that influence.
Sene participated in the Women In panel at AFIS, examining whether alternative data could help overcome the barriers women face in accessing credit or risk reinforcing the inequalities already embedded in conventional lending systems. The discussion addressed a persistent challenge for Africa's financial industry, as women entrepreneurs often operate viable businesses but lack the collateral, formal credit histories or financial documentation required by traditional lenders. Digital transaction records and alternative credit assessment methods could help financial institutions better understand their businesses and extend financing to previously underserved borrowers.
The stakes are considerable, with women-led small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa facing an estimated $42 billion annual financing gap. While alternative credit scoring offers opportunities to narrow that gap, the summit also highlighted concerns that algorithms trained on historical financial data could reproduce gender discrimination. Sene emphasized that the central challenge is ensuring that new financial models do not repeat the exclusions of the past.
Sene's reflections placed particular emphasis on the responsibility of fintech companies, lenders and policymakers to ensure that technological progress translates into fairer access to economic opportunities. Her engagements with regulators and other financial industry stakeholders in Luanda included discussions organised by AXIAN, where attention turned to the relationship between innovation, regulation and the trust required to build sustainable digital financial systems.
As Africa's fintech industry moves beyond basic payments into more sophisticated financial services, cooperation between regulators and financial service providers is becoming increasingly important. The next phase of Africa's financial transformation will require more than technological breakthroughs; building public confidence, protecting customers and maintaining meaningful dialogue with regulators will be just as important as developing new products or expanding into additional markets.
Wave's ambition is to make Africa the world's first cashless continent, a vision Sene described as a collective undertaking requiring sustained commitment from financial institutions, regulators, technology providers and the millions of Africans increasingly relying on digital services. The African Disrupter Award offered encouragement, but Sene's reflections made clear that the work ahead remains substantial, with a focus on ensuring that the benefits of digital financial services reach women, rural communities and other underserved groups.
Key points
- Financial inclusion must be at the heart of Africa's digital revolution.
- Wave serves more than 25 million monthly active users across 11 African markets.
- Women-led small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa face an estimated $42 billion annual financing gap.
