Dear Reader,
March brought us back to Kigali, and once again, the city did not disappoint.
The Inclusive FinTech Forum, held from 10 to 12 March at the Kigali Convention Centre, gathered central bank governors, senior policymakers, investors, and innovators from Africa and beyond. Pan-African in its ambition, the forum draws a global audience – because what is being built on this continent matters to the entire international financial community. Three days of substantive, often frank conversations about where African digital finance is going – and what it will take to build it well.
None of this happens without the right partners. We are grateful to the National Bank of Rwanda and the Kigali International Financial Centre for their continued partnership in making the Inclusive FinTech Forum what it is.
For those of us who have worked across this continent for many years, forums like this carry a particular weight. The relationships in that room are not new. They have been forged over years of shared challenges and shared ambition. And every time we return to Kigali, it is striking how much has moved – and how much more is now possible.
This year, that sense of momentum was tangible, and it was amplified by a new chapter for the National Bank of Rwanda, with Governor Soraya Hakuziyaremye and Deputy Governor Nick Barigye recently taking the helm. The conversations we had with the new leadership reflected exactly the kind of engaged, outward-looking approach that makes Rwanda such a compelling partner, keenly focused on learning from the best in the region, and connecting to the global conversations that matter.
One of those conversations, frankly, would not have taken place three years ago. Digital assets – virtual currencies, tokenized instruments, regulatory frameworks for crypto, were on the agenda, discussed openly by governors who are now designing real policy responses. That shift alone signals how quickly the landscape has changed.
That momentum around payments is something GFTN is directly invested in, not just at the forum, but year-round. We work closely with Mojaloop, with our CEO for USA, LATAM, MEA, Pat Patel, serving on its board.
We are aligned with the Gates Foundation in a shared ambition: to ensure that every African country has a functioning instant payment system in place by 2030. The progress being made, market by market, is tangible. The discussions in Kigali this March further reinforced that this target is not only achievable, but essential for the continent’s financial future.
On the regulatory side, Kenya and Rwanda signed a new MOU on licensing passporting, building on last year's landmark agreement between Ghana and Rwanda. These are not symbolic gestures. They are the architecture of an integrated African FinTech market, being built one bilateral agreement at a time. The relationship between the central banks of Ghana and Rwanda, in particular, continues to deepen in ways that are shaping what regional cooperation can actually look like in practice.
The energy from Kigali carries directly into what comes next. We invite you to join us in Accra, Ghana where the Bank of Ghana is hosting the 3i Africa Summit, from 6 to 8 May, where we will continue shaping Africa's integrated FinTech future, together with the central bank community and industry leaders who are driving this agenda forward.
We hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Francesca Aliverti
Head of Middle East & Africa, GFTN
