Last week at the African Tech Summit, my colleagues and I had the opportunity to visit numerous exhibitions and witness brilliant ideas from innovators from across the continent. The tech summit brought together innovators, investors, policy makers and entrepreneurs to take a deep dive into the fast-growing tech landscape in Africa.
Exhibitions and tech demos at the summit revolved around fintech, healthcare, e-commerce and sustainability among many others that capture the essence of Africa and innovate solutions to local challenges. There were showcases that brought forward the crucial role of a solid digital infrastructure and how emerging technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence are becoming mainstream day by day.
At the panel sessions which my colleagues and I sat through, policymakers emphasized the importance of fostering an enabling environment for technology entrepreneurship, safety of money, advocating for policies that support innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital inclusion.
One of the stands that were a must visit was Visa, which showcased the working of the Visa Innovation Studio and the African Fintech Accelerator which we wrote about here. After a successful first phase, the accelerator program is now taking in a new wave of entries into the 12 week program that offers mentorship, funding and exposure to investors among other accelerators for growth.
Innovators from all over Africa with scalable solutions that tick the problem solving box are encouraged to apply. Some of the criteria used for shortlisting is how long the business has been in operation, what accomplishment they have thus far and what projections are in place for the future. Fill in your application on Visa’s website before February 29th.
As mentioned earlier, we were also taken through a demo of the Visa Innovation Studio, a first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa that offers Visa partners an opportunity to co-create future solutions for commerce. It is testament of Visa’s commitment to the region.
At the innovation studio stand, Visa showcased contactless shopping where we witnessed a demo of instant onboarding, biometric verification via facial scanning, credit score determination and transaction all within minutes. That is from the shopper’s end.
On the business owner’s side, customers are able to purchase goods without the need for visiting a physical store. The Visa system is able to align the business owner’s books, monitor cash flow and manage expenses. This is surely the future of payments and as a payment solutions provider, Visa is at the forefront of commerce innovations.