In Africa, the fintech market is on track to reach $500 million by 2030. With Africa home to the youngest population in the world, with a median age of around 19 years, and over 50% of the continent's population under 25, it provides for an exciting future prospect for innovation and growth.
Speaking at the Demo Day for Cohort 4 of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator programme, Meagan Rabe, Visa’s VP for Merchant Services, Acquiring and Fintech for Sub-Saharan Africa, stressed that these realities present an amazing opportunity for the businesses in the room. “The possibilities are endless for these ventures to design and develop solutions to meet the needs of this young, dynamic and tech-savvy population,” she said.
Rabe explained that the purpose of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator programme is to provide these businesses with the necessary support and resources to help them shape the future of payments across the continent. “As part of the programme, we provide various buckets of support, from product development and marketing enablement, to HR support,” she said. “For us, it's not only about partnering, but also about execution.”
During the three-month programme, participants are introduced to Visa’s suite of around 300 products and come up with ways to integrate their solutions with these products to unlock new opportunities. “All of the work we do during the programme really culminates in the Demo Day, where founders get an opportunity to showcase their products and hopefully partner with the right people who can help them to grow their businesses further, faster,” Rabe added.
Rabe also highlighted how corporate partnerships can accelerate start-up readiness, pointing to Visa’s collaboration with Onafriq, a Pan-African payments company supporting the programme. This partnership provides a packaged solution that significantly shortens the time required for new ventures to launch a card programme.
According to Rabe, mentorship is key to the accelerator programme’s success. “As part of our mentorship efforts, we've chosen industry leaders from across the African continent who have the expertise to help these start-ups navigate the business environment and who can give them advice around how to scale, market strategies, product mix and client requirements,” she noted.
“I really believe that this year’s Demo Day was a great success. I think what is really powerful is the number of female-led founders on the stage and also the many women working behind the scenes. A couple of years ago, we really struggled to find fintechs that even had one female in their leadership teams, and now we’re seeing that women are definitely coming forward in the leadership race,” she said.
She added that the diversity of talent was inspiring. “This programme is a beautiful culmination of knowledge, diverse skill sets and talent. For me, it shows that Africa is becoming a magnet for creativity and tech innovation.”
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