GITEX Nigeria has launched MINT AFRICA by GITEX, a new future finance platform bringing together money, innovation, new technology and transparency to accelerate the transformation of Africa’s financial economy going forward.

Launching in Lagos as part of GITEX Nigeria week 2027, MINT AFRICA by GITEX will convene governments, regulators, banks, institutional investors, fintechs, technology companies and digital-asset innovators at a critical inflection point for global finance.

Money is becoming programmable. Real-world assets are being tokenised. Agentic AI is beginning to transform how financial services are delivered and decisions are made. Stablecoins and digital assets are challenging traditional rails, while AI, digital identity, cybersecurity and interoperable payment infrastructure are becoming fundamental economic infrastructure.

For Africa, these shifts represent an opportunity not simply to adopt the next generation of finance, but to help define it.  And few places make the case more powerfully than Lagos.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest fintech ecosystem, while Lagos has produced some of the continent’s most consequential fintech companies and sits at the intersection of immense market scale, entrepreneurial talent, capital and an increasingly ambitious digital economy.

Following the sell-out GITEX Nigeria, MINT AFRICA by GITEX 2027 will significantly expand this mandate, creating a dedicated platform to connect capital, policy, regulation, infrastructure and frontier financial technology across Africa.

In partnership with the Lagos State Government, MINT AFRICA by GITEX will debut during GITEX Nigeria week leveraging GITEX’s global technology, investor and government network to connect Africa’s financial ambitions with international capital and innovation.

Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, 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.”

Commissioner for the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Lagos State, Tunbosun Alake, added: “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.”

The opportunity is substantial. Africa’s digital payments economy is projected to reach  $1.5 trillion by 2030, while the African Development Bank estimates reforms spanning deeper capital markets, stronger domestic resource mobilisation and public-private partnerships could unlock as much as $1.43 trillion in financing yearly.

Yet significant gaps remain. In Nigeria, adult account ownership increased from 45.3 per cent in 2021 to 63.3 per cent in 2024, while only 9.1 per cent borrowed through formal financial channels.

MINT AFRICA by GITEX will focus on converting this gap into economic opportunity, exploring how new technologies and regulatory models can widen access to capital, modernise financial infrastructure and enable African consumers and enterprises to participate more fully in the digital economy.

Its agenda will span 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 into Africa’s fintech economy.

Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, Nigeria, Dr Nurudeen Abubakar Zauro, said: “The target of achieving a $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.”

Technology alone will not determine the winners of the next financial era. Infrastructure, regulation and investor confidence will.

Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband and Innovation to the Governor of Lagos State, Ganiyu Oseni, 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.”

His message to global investors was equally direct: “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.”

That transformation also demands new approaches to ownership and investment.

CEO, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Nigeria, Dr Armstrong Ume Takang, 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?”

There is urgency of regulatory coordination as digital assets increasingly transcend national borders.

Head of Oversight and Compliance, Virtual Assets Department, Bank of Ghana, Tahiru Al Hassan, 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.”

MINT AFRICA by GITEX 2027 will be embedded in the week of GITEX NIGERIA because the future of finance can no longer be separated from the future of technology.

AI is becoming financial infrastructure. Tokenisation is connecting technology with capital markets. Digital identity is connecting citizens with services. Regulation is converging with innovation. And investment will determine which markets move from experimentation to scale.

Through GITEX’s international network of technology companies, investors, governments and innovators, MINT AFRICA by GITEX will connect these forces on one platform, with Lagos as its marketplace and Africa as its mandate.

CEO of GITEX, Trixie LohMirmand, 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 programmable and financial markets increasingly borderless. Africa has an opportunity not merely to participate in this transition, but to shape it.