Fintech Leaders Set to Discuss APIs as Africa’s Payments Market Nears $1.5 Trillion

Africa’s digital payments economy is on a remarkable upward trajectory. A 2025 Mastercard-commissioned report projects that the market will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, fuelled by rapid internet penetration and growing financial inclusion across the continent.

In 2024, mobile money platforms on the continent processed $1.1 trillion across approximately 81 billion transactions, accounting for around 74% of global mobile money volume. This data, published by the GSMA in its 2025 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, highlights the urgent need for scalable, efficient payment infrastructure.

On October 2, 2025, leading voices from Africa’s fintech and enterprise ecosystem will gather for a virtual webinar titled Managing Payment Operations at Scale with APIs. The 90-minute session will explore how businesses can simplify reconciliation, reduce operational costs, and adapt to rising transaction volumes through the use of APIs — the invisible infrastructure now powering much of Africa’s financial services.

The virtual event will bring together senior executives and product leaders who have been instrumental in shaping Africa’s digital finance infrastructure.

Speakers include Obianuju Odukwe, Vice President of Digital and API Ecosystems at Interswitch, who leads payment gateway and remittance initiatives across Africa; Segun Adeyemi, CEO of Anchor, one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing banking-as-a-service providers; and Tochukwu “Tochii” Achebe, a product leader and founder of The Nwa-Amaka Achebe Trust. Together, they will share insights from the frontlines of digital payments, alongside other senior executives shaping the continent’s financial technology landscape.

Delivering the keynote address is Okoronkwo Kanno, Senior Product Manager at Kuda Business, who will highlight the role of APIs in scaling payment operations for enterprises. “APIs are the connective tissue for modern payments,” Kanno said ahead of the event. “When businesses can automate reconciliation and scale financial operations seamlessly, they don’t just cut costs, they unlock entirely new growth opportunities. That’s the conversation we want to bring to the ecosystem.”

The discussion will cover real-world use cases from industries such as airlines, schools, and betting, where high-volume transactions and back-end reconciliation remain a pressing challenge. Organisers say the session is designed to provide practical strategies for CTOs, CFOs, and product leaders grappling with the demands of scaling financial operations.

Industry experts warn that unaddressed inefficiencies in payment systems can lead to significant revenue leakage, resulting in the loss of expected income. A recent study of Nigerian banking operations found recurring cases of revenue leakage linked to process inefficiencies and fragmented systems, underscoring the need for integrated, API-led infrastructure.

By convening experienced practitioners and innovators, the webinar aims to arm enterprises with the tools and knowledge needed to scale in an increasingly digital marketplace.

The session is free to attend and will begin at 12:00 pm West African time on Zoom. Interested participants can register here: https://luma.com/igblzyhh