Africa FinTech Festival: Positioning FinTech as a major pillar of growth in the future
15 Oct 2021
Mauritius, for the first time hosted the prestigious Africa FinTech Festival (AFF) held from 13th to 15th October 2021. The three-day virtual event saw the participation of more than 800 delegates across 82 countries.
Outbidding several African countries, Mauritius won the rights to host the third edition of the AFF. This festival was firstly launched by the Vice-president of Nigeria in 2018, and the second edition was held in Uganda in 2019. The AFF is a concept created by the Africa Fintech Network (AFN), which aims at addressing the future of fintech in the African context. Consisting of 33 African countries, the AFN is a platform that unites Africa fintech leaders, organisations and stakeholders through their country associations to exchange information and ideas, promote and support the creation of innovative technologies and deployment across and beyond Africa.
The event themed "FinTech, Sustainability and Innovation - The power trio to fast-forward Africa’s growth" was organized in collaboration with the Economic Development Board. Mr. Michal Szymanski, CEO of MAFH, Dr. Segun Aina, President of the AFN and Mr. Ken Poonoosamy, Chief Executive Officer of the EDB inaugurated the festival by welcoming the audience from around the world.
Mr. Poonoosamy delivered a keynote address during the official virtual launch elaborating the FinTech journey of Mauritius, particularly since the launch of the Regulatory Sandbox License (RSL) in country, offering investors the possibility to conduct innovative business projects in Mauritius. He pointed out that the Economic Development Board has granted 9 RSL Licenses covering a diverse portfolio of FinTech projects such as Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s), cryptocurrencies exchange platforms, digital wallets, crowdfunding platforms, amongst other innovative projects.
During his speech, Mr. Poonoosamy highlighted the importance of the FinTech sector and underlined the key measures undertaken by the Government of Mauritius to position FinTech as a major pillar of growth in the future. In a bid to strengthen the FinTech landscape and provide a better ecosystem to FinTech stakeholders, new legislations were crafted by the Financial Services Commission, the regulator for the non-banking activities. Mr. Poonoosamy seized the opportunity to invite start-ups to set up FinTech projects in Mauritius, explore partnership opportunities with other start-ups and use Mauritius as a base to expand into other countries, particularly in Africa.
In this perspective, the EDB announced the hosting of a Business Forum dedicated to FinTech on Thursday, 9th December 2021, as part of the Finance and Investment Week, which will be held in the margin of the Dubai Expo 2020.
It was also announced that the fourth edition of this festival will be held in Egypt in 2022.
View the official launching ceremony
