Mastercard champions a more connected digital future for Africa at GITEX Nigeria 2026

As Africa’s digital economy continues to evolve, the conversation is shifting from adoption to value creation. At GITEX Nigeria 2026, held in Abuja and Lagos from August 31 to September 3,Mastercard brought together perspectives on interoperability, financial innovation, local capability, and cybersecurity, highlighting the critical building blocks needed to create a more connected, inclusive, and trusted digital economy.

Across discussions on digital government, technology ownership, financial innovation and cybersecurity, Mastercard executives examined what it will take to move Africa from digital adoption toward greater participation, value creation and economic opportunity.Mastercard also hosted key stakeholders at its exhibition booth, including the Deputy Governor of Lagos State and the U.S. Consul General. These engagements reinforced the growing importance of public- and private-sector collaboration in building a more connected, inclusive and trusted digital economy across Nigeria and Africa.

Connecting the digital ecosystem

Africa has made significant investments in digital identity, real-time payments and digital government platforms. The next opportunity is to connect these systems so they can work together rather than operate as separate digital services.

When identity, payments and service delivery are interoperable, a citizen can verify their identity, access a service and make or receive a payment through a more seamless interaction. For businesses, digital transactions can also create records that contribute to financial profiles and open pathways to credit and other financial services.

This was a key theme of the eGov and digital interoperability discussion featuring Kari Tukur, vice president, Core Payments, West Africa, Mastercard. During the discussion, Tukur highlighted the importance of designing identity, payments and service delivery systems to work together from the outset, noting that interoperability is critical to creating seamless digital experiences for citizens and businesses.

Mastercard’s Community Pass illustrates how connected digital infrastructure can translate into economic participation. Through secure digital credentials, the platform connects underserved communities with financial institutions, governments and service providers, helping farmers and small traders build digital profiles that can support access to payments, markets and financial tools.

From digital adoption to greater local value

For African economies, working with global technology companies can accelerate access to capabilities and infrastructure. But the longer-term opportunity lies in ensuring these collaborations also strengthen local skills, infrastructure, innovation and businesses.

That was the focus of the discussion on “What the Digital Future Requires – From Dependency to Ownership,” featuring Olusola Olakanmi, vice president, Account Management and head of Sales, West Africa, Mastercard. Olakanmi emphasized that while global partnerships remain important for accelerating access to technology, infrastructure and expertise, their long-term value should be measured by the extent to which they strengthen local capability, develop infrastructure and create opportunities for African businesses to generate sustainable value.

This approach extends beyond deploying technology. It includes capability transfer, engineering and cybersecurity skills, product development, local supplier participation and stronger pathways for African businesses to create and retain value.

Mastercard is supporting this through its role as a technology partner by connecting local banks, fintechs, governments, merchants and consumers to global capabilities. Its acceptance network across Africa grew by 45% in 2025, extending digital payment participation to consumers and merchants, including smaller and informal businesses.

The shift from adoption to ownership is ultimately about ensuring that digital participation translates into local capability and economic opportunity.

Making financial innovation scalable

Africa’s financial technology ecosystem continues to generate new ways for people and businesses to transact and access financial services. But innovation only reaches its full potential when the infrastructure beneath it can support scale.

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At “Africa’s Financial Reset: The New Architecture of Money, Markets and Movement,” Unwana Esang, vice president, Service Business Development, Mastercard, spoke about the importance of infrastructure, trust and ecosystem collaboration in helping financial innovation move beyond pilots and achieve scale. The discussion explored how interoperable infrastructure enables new solutions to reach more people, businesses and markets while supporting sustainable growth across the financial ecosystem.

As banks, fintech companies, mobile-money operators and emerging payment rails increasingly converge, interoperability can help reduce the cost and complexity of connecting different systems. This becomes particularly important for cross-border commerce, remittances and business payments.

Mastercard Move supports money movement across more than 200 countries and territories and more than 150 currencies, connecting bank accounts, cards, digital wallets and cash endpoints.

At the same time, AI is creating opportunities to make financial services more intelligent. Mastercard Threat Intelligenceuses AI to assess transaction risk in real time, helping issuers identify suspicious activity while approving genuine transactions. Together, these capabilities point to a financial ecosystem where connectivity and intelligence can help services move faster, reach further and respond more effectively to customers and businesses.

Trust is the foundation

The expansion of digital services also brings one fundamental requirement: people and businesses must be able to trust the systems they are using. Trust remains one of the most important enablers of digital adoption, making resilience, fraud prevention, and consumer protection essential components of Africa’s digital future.

Cybersecurity, therefore, cannot sit separately from digital transformation. As more identity information, payments and business activity move through connected platforms, security, fraud prevention, data protection and consumer confidence need to be built into the infrastructure from the outset.

Mastercard reinforced this focus through its cybersecurity workshop at GITEX Nigeria, complementing the discussions on stage with a practical look at the evolving cyber threat landscape and the importance of strengthening resilience as organizations adopt new technologies.

Can Elbeyli, senior vice president, Security Solutions, EEMEA, Mastercard, presented at the workshop, sharing insights on the changing threat environment, AI-driven risks and the need for organizations to integrate cybersecurity, fraud prevention and resilience into their broader transformation strategies.The discussion explored how organizations can strengthen trust, improve cyber readiness, and build the capabilities required to safely adopt AI and other emerging technologies while supporting long-term growth and innovation.

This emphasis on trust connects the different strands of Mastercard’s GITEX engagement. Interoperability creates connection; local capability creates value; financial infrastructure enables scale; and cybersecurity creates the confidence for the ecosystem to grow.

Building Africa’s next digital chapter

Africa’s digital opportunity is therefore about more than moving services online or increasing digital transactions. It is about creating the infrastructure and conditions that allow digital participation to translate into broader economic opportunity.

For Mastercard, this means working with the ecosystem to connect technology, innovation and local expertise, helping create digital environments in which businesses can grow, financial institutions can innovate, governments can deliver services more effectively and consumers can participate with confidence.

“Africa’s digital future will be shaped by the partnerships that bring together technology, innovation and local expertise to create real opportunities for people and businesses,” said Gabriel Swanepoel, division president, Africa at Mastercard. “GITEX Nigeria provides an important platform for those connections, bringing together the innovators, entrepreneurs and organisations driving Africa’s digital transformation. Mastercard is proud to support this ecosystem and play our part in building a more connected, inclusive and trusted digital economy across Nigeria and Africa.”