Ask anyone working in African fintech how far the sector has come, and mobile money is usually the first answer. It is a fair one. The more interesting question is what happens next.

We put that question to two speakers joining us at Africa Tech Festival this November at the CTICC in Cape Town: Safeyah Dawray Executive Head Demand and Delivery, M-Pesa Africa and Brenda Mpoora Head of FinTech Business, Pearl Bank Uganda. They approach it from different directions, yet their answers keep arriving at the same place. Getting people onto digital rails was the first chapter. The next is about what happens once they are there: how deeply people use these tools, how well the pieces connect, and who gets to define success.

Beyond access

Safeyah Dawray sees the conversation changing shape.

“One of the most interesting shifts is that the conversation is moving beyond financial inclusion as a standalone objective towards ecosystem enablement. Mobile money has achieved significant reach across many African markets, but the next phase of growth will come from how effectively we connect people, businesses, merchants, and services within digital ecosystems.”

For her, the prize is practical: “The real opportunity is not just digitising payments, but reducing friction in everyday economic activity, whether that is cross-border trade, commerce, remittances, or access to financial services for SMEs.”

Brenda Mpoora reaches a similar point from the user’s side of the screen. “Much of the global conversation still frames African fintech around access getting people their first wallet, their first digital transaction. What’s often missed is that the frontier has already moved past access and is now firmly about depth of use.” Her view is that the shift is already underway.

"The real story unfolding across markets like Uganda is how mobile money and digital banking rails are quietly becoming the infrastructure for savings, credit, insurance and cross-border remittances not just payments. The next wave of growth won’t come from more people signing up; it will come from existing users trusting these platforms with more of their financial lives.”

Where fintech can do the most good

For Safeyah, the answer starts with small businesses.

“I believe the greatest opportunity lies in enabling seamless financial participation for small businesses and entrepreneurs. SMEs are the backbone of many African economies, yet they often face barriers such as slow payments, limited access to finance, and fragmented cross-border payment experiences.”

The fix, as she sees it, is access that works across markets: “By making financial services more accessible, affordable, and interoperable, fintech can help unlock economic growth, support regional trade, and create opportunities for businesses to scale beyond their local markets.”

Brenda Mpoora widens the lens from payments to prosperity. “The greatest impact lies at the intersection of financial inclusion and wealth creation moving beyond transactional access to genuine asset-building for underserved populations. This means embedding savings, micro-investment and credit products directly into the digital rails people already use daily and extending them deliberately to segments that formal finance has historically underserved: informal traders, SMEs, agricultural communities, and women-led households.” She is clear about where the value now sits:

“Fintech’s greatest value now is not in digitizing transactions, but in digitizing opportunity.”

Leading on African terms

Neither speaker thinks Africa is playing catch-up. Safeyah Dawray points to what has already been proven:

“Africa has already demonstrated that it can lead through innovation rather than replication, particularly in areas such as mobile money.”

What comes next is joint effort. “The next step is greater collaboration across markets, regulators, financial institutions, and technology providers. We need to focus on building interoperable ecosystems, developing local talent, and creating scalable solutions that can be adopted across borders.” And the destination is a model others can borrow: “Leadership will come from solving uniquely African challenges in ways that create models the rest of the world can learn from.”

Brenda Mpoora frames it as three shifts. “Three things need to shift. First, regulatory frameworks need to evolve as fast as innovation does sandboxes and cross-border interoperability standards must become the norm, not the exception.” On the industry itself, she wants less rivalry and more shared building: “Second, the ecosystem needs to move from siloed competition to structured collaboration banks, telcos, fintechs and regulators building shared infrastructure rather than duplicating it.” The last is the one she ranks highest: “Third, and most importantly, African fintech leadership must be defined on our own terms solving for our informal economies, our liquidity realities and our trust dynamics rather than importing models built for fundamentally different markets.”

What they are watching

Safeyah Dawray is following how financial services are working their way into daily routines. “What interests me most is how digital financial services are becoming increasingly embedded in people’s daily lives and business activities. The future of fintech is not just about enabling transactions, but about creating seamless digital experiences that support commerce, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion.” Her attention goes to the customer and the small business owner:

“I’m particularly excited by innovations that reduce friction for customers and SMEs while helping build more connected digital economies across Africa.”

Brenda Mpoora has her eye on cross-border payments.

“I’m closely watching the maturing of cross-border remittance infrastructure and the deepening of interoperability between mobile money, banks and digital platforms — particularly the emergence of universal QR payment standards that let a person from one economy walk into another country and pay any merchant seamlessly, even without a local bank account or card.”

As for why it matters: “This matters because remittances remain one of the continent’s largest and most underleveraged sources of capital, and true cross-border interoperability — where a traveler, trader or migrant can transact as easily abroad as they do at home is what will finally unlock seamless, low-cost, trusted financial movement across the continent, for individuals and national economies alike.”

Why the room matters

Both speakers see events as more than a date in the diary. Safeyah Dawray starts with how varied the landscape is.

“Africa’s fintech ecosystem is incredibly diverse, with different markets often progressing at different speeds and facing different challenges. Events like Africa Tech Festival play an important role in bringing together innovators, operators, policymakers, investors, and technology leaders to share perspectives and learn from one another.”

The value, she says, is in the links that follow: “They help create connections across industries and borders, which is essential if we are serious about building a more integrated digital economy for the continent.”

Brenda Mpoora talks about it in terms of partnership.

“Platforms like Africa Tech Festival matter because Africa’s fintech progress has never been the work of any single institution it is the product of banks, telcos, regulators, innovators and investors moving in step with one another. Festivals like this create the rare room where those players sit at the same table, challenge each other’s assumptions, and walk away with real partnerships rather than just ideas.”

And she is clear on the result: “That collision of perspectives global and local, incumbent and disruptor is exactly what accelerates a market from adoption to leadership.”

Where the conversation goes next

Read side by side, the two interviews share a clear thread. Safeyah points to connection: small businesses, merchants and services working across borders with less friction. Brenda points to depth: people trusting digital rails with their savings, credit and long-term wealth. Both agree that the next stage will not be won by any one company or market. It will come from banks, telcos, regulators and fintechs building together, and from Africa defining success on its own terms.

Join the conversation at Africa Tech Festival this November and be part of shaping Africa’s digital resilience. Together, we can build a secure and innovative future for the continent. Register now to secure your place!

Africa Tech Festival returns to the CTICC in Cape Town from 17 to 19 November 2026. Brenda Mpoora and Safeyah Dawray will be taking part in this year's FinTech programme.