Seamless Africa events bring together the entire financial ecosystem to discuss, debate, and evaluate the future of the industry. This year’s edition of the event took place from the 4th to the 5th of October 2022 in Nairobi and brought together various organizations from the banking, payments, and FinTech space. This included: 80+ expert speakers, 50+ exhibitors and startups, and more than 1,000 attendees. The event focussed on technology and innovation for banks and financial services across Africa. Pezesha was well represented at the event, with our founder and CEO Hilda Moraa moderating a panel discussion on  - ‘redefining the lending value chain: moving away from traditional trade finance instruments and embracing digital lending’ 

The event had very insightful keynote presentations and panel discussions that captured impactful discussion points on topics such as inclusive digital payments ecosystems, digital security, the state of mobile money in Africa, financial literacy, the rise of fintech in Africa, bank-fintech collaboration, digital lending as well as women and trade in Africa. 

According to an August 2022 report by Mckinsey regarding Fintech in Africa - the number of tech startups in Africa tripled between 2020 and 2021 to 5,200 and just under half of these were fintech. The rise of smartphone penetration, improved internet connectivity, increased foreign and local investment, favorable policies and regulations, as well as an increase in the new generation of tech-savvy youth in Africa have increased the uptake of fintech services in Africa. The seamless event was a great example of the growth being experienced in the fintech sector in Africa with fintech startups, banks, fintech associations, and payment platforms from across the world present at the event.

The event provided us with an opportunity to learn from industry experts and thought leaders in the fintech space and we also got to network and identify potential leads that we will look to collaborate with in the near future. Through our embedded finance platform and lending infrastructure, our aim is to continue to connect MSMEs with affordable working capital beyond our current markets and provide our embedded finance, financial education, and lending infrastructure to more partners in Africa. The event was a great success and we look forward to the next edition of the event in 2023.