Africa FinTech Forward Sets Aug 25 Payments Showcase

In Short

• The UN Economic Commission for Africa is launching Africa FinTech Forward, a quarterly virtual showcase.
• The first session runs on August 25, 2026, and focuses on digital payments and cross-border remittances.
• Featured companies include KundaPay, Chapa Financial Technologies, and INTELI EXPRESS.

What Happened

Africa FinTech Forward will start with a virtual session on Tuesday, August 25, 2026. Africa FinTech Forward is positioned as a quarterly online showcase for fintech products and discussions.

The program is being organized by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Africa Fintech Network, and 10x1000 Tech for Inclusion. The organisers say the goal is to reduce fragmentation in the fintech ecosystem, so investors, banks, regulators, and corporate partners can more easily find and engage high-potential companies across multiple African markets.

The inaugural session will cover digital payments and cross-border remittances, meaning tools for moving money online across borders, like paying suppliers in another country or sending money home to family. The agenda includes live product demos followed by an expert fireside chat on scaling, regulation, and payment infrastructure.

Three companies are listed as featured presenters. KundaPay is building bidirectional cross-border payment infrastructure across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and says it has processed over €300,000 in transactions with more than 1,000 active users. Chapa is an Ethiopian online payment gateway, which is the checkout layer that helps businesses accept digital payments on websites and apps. INTELI EXPRESS is a global money transfer network operating in 90+ countries through 57,000+ locations.

Why It Matters

Payments and remittances are still one of the hardest parts of scaling a pan-African business. Different rules, settlement systems, and wallet networks often mean companies have to integrate multiple providers.

A structured showcase like Africa FinTech Forward could help fintechs reach more targeted partners than broad demo days. It also puts interoperability, which is the ability for different payment systems to work together, at the center of the conversation.

For African founders, the timing matters. Funding is tighter, and many growth plans now depend on clearer regulatory pathways and stronger cross-border rails, not just new customer acquisition.