GITEX Nigeria unveils ‘MINT AFRICA’ in Lagos to reshape continent’s financial infrastructure - ITREALMS

GITEX Nigeria has announced the official launch of MINT AFRICA by GITEX, a future finance platform designed to accelerate the transformation of Africa's financial ecosystem through deep technology, capital integration, and regulatory alignment, reports ITREALMS.

Set to debut in Lagos as an integral anchor of GITEX NIGERIA Week 2027, MINT Africa will unite global institutional investors, commercial banks, fintech founders, technology titans, and central bank regulators at a critical junction for borderless finance. 

The move, ITREALMS gathered, positions Lagos, Africa’s undisputed fintech powerhouse, as the central marketplace driving the convergence of money, artificial intelligence, and programmable digital assets. 

 The global financial landscape is undergoing a systemic rewrite, with programmable money, tokenized real-world assets, agentic AI, stablecoins, and interoperable payment structures challenging legacy systems as MINT AFRICA aims to transition the region from simply adopting frontier finance to actively defining it. 

The market potential remains staggering, given that Africa's digital payments economy is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion by 2030, alongside estimates from the African Development Bank indicating that structural reforms across domestic resource mobilization, capital markets, and strategic public-private partnerships could unlock up to US$1.43 trillion in annual financing. 

Addressing the gap between financial inclusion and true economic participation in Nigeria; where adult bank account ownership rose to 63.3% in 2024, yet formal credit access remains limited to 9.1% - MINT AFRICA will focus on deploying technologies that extend capital access directly to MSMEs and last-mile consumers. 

 The platform's strategic agenda for 2027 focuses on five core pillars, starting with opening up new capital distribution models for physical and corporate assets through tokenization and real-world assets. It will further drive the integration of autonomous AI agents directly into core banking operations and risk modeling under its agentic AI and intelligent banking initiative. 

To streamline intra-African trade, MINT AFRICA will harness stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and unified clearing rails to establish cross-border interoperability and advance digital assets. 

Foundationally, the event will prioritize constructing robust infrastructure for secure, friction-free transactions through cybersecurity, trust, and digital identity framework development, while fostering cross-border regulatory coordination to eliminate regional fragmentation through harmonized policy and regulation. 

 Key industry and policy leaders have emphasized the strategic significance of this launch for the continent's financial future. 

H.E. Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, noted that when GITEX came to Nigeria, Lagos became a commercial anchor as a matter of commercial judgment because exhibitions follow scale, capital, and momentum, adding that the next chapter of African finance will be built together in Lagos. 

Tunbosun Alake, Honourable Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology in Lagos State, highlighted that Africa suffers not from a shortage of financial innovation, but from a shortage of conversations that turn innovation into signed deals, which this future finance week is built to close.

Engr. Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband and Innovation to the Governor of Lagos State, stressed that infrastructure is policy and invited global investors to bring operational presence and capital to Lagos where Africa's tokenized, programmable, and cross-border financial future should settle. 

Dr. Armstrong Ume Takang, CEO of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), questioned whether Nigerians would take a backseat or become active participants as digital tools allow the tokenization of assets. 

Trixie LohMirmand, CEO of GITEX, affirmed that Nigeria leads Africa’s fintech revolution and stated that MINT AFRICA aims to unite the technology, regulation, infrastructure, and global capital needed to turn current innovation into Africa’s next financial economy. 

ITREALMS monitoring confirms that MINT AFRICA by GITEX will leverage GITEX’s expansive global network to catalyze cross-border capital flows directly into Nigeria’s tech ecosystem ahead of its 2027 launch.