By Chinenye Anuforo
Driven by the vision to facilitate digital transformation, Access Bank and its FinTech accelerator, the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) recently collaborated with Fintech NGR to host the 2021 World FinTech Festival (WFF).
Discussing the relevance of the tech festival, the Head of the Africa Fintech Foundry, Daniel Awe, stated that the World FinTech Festival showcases how various ecosystems can build a digital economy by leveraging emerging technology.
“Emerging technology can be leveraged to drive economic development, ultimately improving the standard of living. This event has shown that an unmistakable revolution is coming; it is not a matter of if but when. As Africans, we need to be at the forefront and leverage technology to solve Pan-African problems,” he said.
The week-long festival, featured as part of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) – the world’s largest FinTech event through which unique opportunities are created for global digital innovative communities to network and collaborate.
Also speaking on the importance of such initiative to Africans everywhere, the President FinTechNGR, Ade Bajomo, stated that “In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Africans are solving African problems across various industries and in the socio-economic context, leveraging global technologies, partnerships and African talent. Such a platform has helped challenge the innovators and the broader ecosystem to keep pushing the limits by leveraging technology to solve the biggest issues on the continent and the world at large.”
Themed TechSpark 3.0, Leveraging Emerging Technology for Digital Economy, the festival combined physical and online gatherings with over 10 global satellite events in selected countries worldwide. It also featured more than 350 seminars, 700 speakers and 260 exhibitors. The event was streamed ‘live’ to over 60,000 participants, including representation from more than 7,000 companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and organisations from over 130 countries.
The World FinTech Festival highlighted the latest trends in the FinTech and tech space, focusing on Nigeria and Africa, featuring tech giants, and thought leaders with a wide area of expertise, including , but not limited to. finance, business, technology, and government.
Access Bank has consistently taken strategic steps to remain a leader in the digitisation of financial services. In line with this, Access Bank introduced Africa FinTech Foundry (AFF), a start-up accelerator and innovation hub that aims to nurture and fast-track the growth of Fintech startups in Africa.