From Foundation to Frontier: Building Financial Infrastructure for Africa

From Foundation to Frontier: Building Financial Infrastructure for Africa a Fireside chat with, Abi Ajayi – Head of Primary Markets, Middle East & Africa at London Stock Exchange, Jay Alabraba – Co-founder and Group Director, Special Projects, Paga and Tayo Oviosu – Founder, Group CEO and Executive Chairman, Paga Group

The fireside chat examines Paga’s evolution from digitising cash payments in Nigeria to creating the financial infrastructure powering seamless payments, savings, investments, and cross-border transactions across Africa. The founders share lessons from nearly two decades of building in complex markets, navigating regulation, scaling trust, embracing innovation, and preparing for the future of African fintech.

Highlights include

💸 Paga processes approximately $1.5 billion in monthly transaction volume and has facilitated over 653 million transactions since launch.
🔧 Financial infrastructure acts as the “invisible plumbing” that enables individuals and businesses to move, save, invest, and transact with confidence.
🤝 Trust remains the foundation of fintech success, built through reliability, customer care, and consistent execution over time.
📜 Prioritising compliance and regulatory engagement created long-term advantages and strengthened partnerships with global financial institutions.
🪙 Stablecoins and blockchain infrastructure are opening new opportunities for faster, lower-cost cross-border payments and global connectivity.
⚖️ Difficult strategic decisions, including exiting the Mexican market during the pandemic, reinforced the importance of disciplined leadership and avoiding sunk-cost thinking.
💡 Balancing operational excellence with continuous innovation has enabled Paga to remain resilient while investing in future growth opportunities.
🤝 Humility, honesty, and hard work have been central to the company’s culture and leadership philosophy since inception.
🚀 Paga’s long-term vision includes expanding its global financial infrastructure footprint and pursuing a future public listing.

From keynotes to dynamic panel discussions, the summit explored topics across the African tech landscape.

Africa Tech Summit London 2026 celebrated its landmark 10th edition on May 29th at The London Stock Exchange. Bringing together leading industry players the summit explored the latest trends and insights in technology and business across Africa and beyond.

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