The inaugural day of the highly anticipated 3i Africa Summit commenced with an overwhelming turnout of thousands of participants, surpassing the initial target of 2500, signaling a strong appetite for advancing Africa’s digital finance agenda.

Held at the prestigious Accra International Conference Centre, the summit, spanning three days, aims to catalyze momentum and synergy between finance, policy, and technology sectors.

Organized by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Development Bank Ghana (DBG), and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) subsidiary, Elevandi, the event promises to deliver on its commitment to driving transformative discussions, fostering international collaboration, promoting entrepreneurship, and facilitating investment opportunities.

Throughout the summit, attendees will engage in a diverse range of activities, including policy dialogues, knowledge sharing sessions, entrepreneurial showcases, and networking forums. The multifaceted nature of the event underscores its role as a platform for generating innovative solutions tailored to address Africa’s unique challenges while capitalizing on its vast potential.

Central to the summit’s objectives is the cultivation of strategic partnerships and alliances aimed at nurturing the burgeoning African digital economy and fintech sector. By bringing together key stakeholders from finance, investment, policy, and technology domains, the summit endeavors to create an ecosystem conducive to innovation, growth, and sustainable development.

Noteworthy participants include three Heads of State, representing a strong political commitment to the digital finance agenda, as well as 10 Governors of Central Banks from Africa and beyond. Among them are luminaries such as Dr. Ernest Addison of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Olayemi Michael Cardoso of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Hon. John Rwangombwa of the National Bank of Rwanda.

Moreover, the summit boasts a robust lineup of over 150 Chief Executives and Senior Executives from leading fintech firms and financial institutions worldwide. Notable figures include Serigne Dioum, CEO of MTN GroupFintech, Dr. Patrich Saidu Contech, CEO of Africa Fintech Network, Saurav Bhattacharya, CEO of Proxtera, and Conrad Kraft, Strategic Advisor at DigitalEuro Association, among others.

Participants To Engage In Over 15 Sessions

Over the three days, the participants will engage in over 15 sessions with speakers and discussants contributing to over 60 topics aimed at finding the pathways that deliver the most traction in the drive to generate momentum and achieve progress in line with the Summit’s theme: “Unleashing Africa’s Fintech and Digital economic potential”.

The exciting series of sessions include “the Capital meets Policy Dialogue”, “Opening; Main Stage” on Day One with “Main Stage – Africa”, “Fintech for inclusion forum”, “3i Africa Dialogues on Digital Assets”, “Founders’ Peak”, “the Deal Zone”, “Women in Tech Conference”, “Agriculture and Fintech Forum” and “Roundtable” on the second day.

The third and final day offers “Smart SMEs and Digital Skills Forum”, “Digital Public Infrastructure”, “ESG Forum”, “Financing businesses, Accelerating Trade; Universal Trusted Credentials” and “Main Stage – Global”.

The topics for the three days will engender a dissection of the issues in order to bring to the fore solutions, ideas and channels to deliver the much-needed progress on the fintech front.

These include Interoperability of data; Digitalizing intra-Africa Trade, State of Fintech; Africa, Africa’s Digital Economic Policy; Incentives, Infrastructure, Financing and Regulations and Skilling up, Stepping up; Building Africa’s workforce with women and youth at the forefront.

Others are Sheconomics; Building a financial future for women with fintech, Seeding Innovation; The convergence of agriculture and fintech in Africa, Integrating fintech to de-risk agriculture value-chains in Africa and Africa’s Digital Renaissance, among others.

One thing is certain, however, that the 3i Africa Summit is not going to be a talk-shop. The discussions, views and solutions over the three days will be packaged as recommendations, collaborative deals, progressive policies and projects to enable the unleashing of Africa’s fintech and economic potential.

This will be shared with the rich assemblage of leaders in the finance, policy and digital technology space for implementation thanks to the efforts and commitment of the Bank of Ghana, Development Bank Ghana and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.