The second day of the 7th FITSPA Annual Fintech Conference, held in Kampala this week, zeroed in on the critical confluence of investments, innovations, and collaboration that is rapidly fueling Africa’s financial technology growth story.
A major presence at the event was MoMo, the MTN Uganda mobile money platform, which highlighted its strategy for empowering the ecosystem through open access and foundational trust.
MoMo Opening the Doors to Innovation
Jemima Kariuki-Njuguna, the Chief Product Officer at MoMo, was a key voice on Day 2, sharing profound insights on “Driving Financial Inclusion and Digital Transformation Across Africa.”
Her address reaffirmed MoMo’s core commitment to empowering both individuals and businesses through strategic collaboration and the foundational pillar of trust.
Crucially, Kariuki-Njuguna detailed how MoMo is actively facilitating broader innovation across the continent:
46 Open APIs
She articulated that MoMo is opening its platform to external partners through 46 open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This technical move, she noted, significantly simplifies integration for fintechs and banks, enabling them to build new, specialised services directly on the MoMo infrastructure.
Connected Ecosystem
Kariuki-Njuguna stated that, “By providing this open access, MoMo fosters a connected ecosystem where diverse innovations can thrive, ensuring that the impact of digital finance reaches wider segments of the population.”
Harnessing Local Creativity for Global Impact
The focus then shifted to the ground-level innovation happening within Uganda, a key growth market for fintech.
Viola Namuyaba, MoMo’s Senior Manager for Payments and E-Commerce, led a powerful panel discussion titled “Harnessing Ugandan Innovation: Elevating Local Solutions to Advance Financial Inclusion.”
This panel spotlighted the creativity and resilience of local innovators who are actively shaping Uganda’s digital future.
The discussions emphasised that domestic creativity, when properly nurtured and supported by open platforms like MoMo’s, is the key to developing solutions that are perfectly tailored to local needs and challenges.
The Core Truth of Collaboration and Purpose
As the dynamic two-day conference drew to a close, a consensus emerged among the industry leaders, innovators, and policymakers present: when collaboration meets purpose, innovation thrives.
The participants agreed that sustainable fintech growth is not an isolated effort. They also agreed that the future success of Africa’s digital economy relies on a shared vision to collectively build an inclusive, trusted, and sustainable fintech ecosystem that delivers real-world impact for all Africans.