When Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, managing director of M-Pesa Africa, walks onto the stage at the 2025 Fintechs Annual Gathering at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala, he starts with a smile and a memory.
‘The last time I was here was almost 18 years ago,’ he says. ‘There was no expressway, no new airport. This was the only big hotel in town.’
He still Googles ‘what to do in Kampala,’ he jokes, finding the same suggestions, Jinja mostly, and laughs at how little has changed.
Young Africans and money
But his tone soon turns global. Lopokoiyit tells a story about his 17-year-old son in South Africa who once called him with a stock tip.
When Donald Trump’s trade threats sent US tech stocks tumbling, the teenager urged him to buy Nvidia shares at $94. Lopokoiyit did, and now they are worth about $182.
The anecdote draws laughter, but his message lands firmly.
‘My son has run my finance account since he was 13,’ he says. ‘Last year he made $25,000, and he is still in high school.’
Young Africans, he argues, are engaging with money in ways their parents never imagined.
‘For them, money isn’t just for sending, it’s for investing. That’s what we must harness.’
By 2050, Lopokoiyit notes, Africa will have 2.6 billion people, 65 percent under 25.
‘That is the largest youth population in the world, with the skill sets to power the globe,’ he says.
Japan’s median age is past 60, and China’s population is shrinking. ‘The best place to be in the world today is Africa.’
Yet, he cautions, ‘technology is a double-edged sword.’ Artificial intelligence could empower the continent, or quietly erase it.
‘If we are not careful, the story of Africa will be rewritten by people in Silicon Valley who’ve never been here,’ he warns. He cites the Cambridge Analytica’s 2018 scandal, when data from millions of Facebook users was used to manipulate elections.
‘If one company could do that, then imagine what is possible now,’ he says. ‘This is a new kind of colonialism; control of the individual.’
Lopokoiyit shifts to the global fintech landscape; cloud computing, APIs, crypto, and AI are blurring the lines between banks and telecoms, citing Nubank in Brazil and Revolut in UK, digital banks each worth more than $70b.
‘They are not just apps, they are buying banking licenses and even telecoms,’ he says. ‘The line between banks and telecoms is disappearing.’
For African fintechs, survival means thinking beyond peer-to-peer transfers to savings, credit, investments, and cross-border payments.
M-Pesa, he says, already handles 220 million transactions daily, five times PayPal’s volume.
Still, global markets value PayPal at about $90 billion, while M-Pesa’s valuation remains far lower.
‘If we were American, our valuation would be ten times higher,’ he says, a frustration and a challenge to Africa to value its own innovation.
Emergency of crypto
Africa already sees $150b in annual crypto activity. Stablecoins moved $18b last year, with Kenya alone drawing $3.3b, more than official remittances.
But Lopokoiyit sounds a warning: ‘Every mobile-money account in Africa is already a stablecoin. For every shilling in M-Pesa, there’s one in a bank. We built this 18 years ago.’
Dollar-based digital currencies, he says, risk eroding sovereignty. ‘If we dollarize our markets, our currencies will weaken, taxes will vanish, and we will enrich companies like Tether and Circle in the US.’
He points to the UAE, which channels all transactions through its own national stablecoin. ‘Africa must do the same, or we will lose control of our money.’
The SME factor
‘Seven out of ten jobs in Africa come from SMEs,’ he reminds the audience.
‘Governments can’t create jobs at that scale; it’s farmers, traders, and boda-boda riders who drive nearly half of GDP.’
Thus, he says, there is need to drive momentum for the section of society that drives job creation.
At M-Pesa, he says, the solution has started with separating personal and business wallets.
‘Now we can build products around them; credit, savings, and insurance, tailored for small businesses,’ he says.
He urges fintechs to read political manifestos, because ‘they often spell out problems worth solving’.
He cites Kenya’s fertilizer subsidy programme, which built on Safaricom technology, enrolled 6.3 million farmers, distributed $400m directly, boosted maize yields by 40 percent, and helped keep inflation under 4 percent.
‘It even stabilized the shilling,’ he adds.
Safaricom has also digitized 18,000 hospitals and health-claims systems, cutting fraud and unlocking valuable health data.
‘What am I doing digitizing hospitals?’ he asks with a grin. ‘It’s data, and data drives opportunity.’
Throughout his presentation, Lopokoiyit balances gravity with humor. He teases regulators who demand local data centres but use Gmail, and jokes about fintechs chasing ‘ridiculous valuations.’
‘The fintech community must build on our platform,’ he says. ‘M-Pesa will open its APIs, agent networks, and compliance systems, [but] I can’t do it all, so build for your customers. We will compete, yes, but the platform will be open.’
His verdict on Kampala
By the time he steps down, Lopokoiyit has painted a future both hopeful and urgent. Africa, he insists, is the world’s next growth engine, but only if it claims its digital sovereignty.
The continent must guard against AI-driven recolonisation, resist quiet dollarisation, and empower SMEs with the tools to thrive.
It must work with governments, embrace innovation, and put young Africans at the center.
‘We have the resources, the culture, and the people,’ he says. ‘The best place to be in the world today is Africa. And the big tech companies know it. If they are not here now, they won’t be big tech in 20 years.’
In Kampala, he’s not just giving a fintech keynote; he is sketching a blueprint for Africa’s digital destiny.
‘The continent is no longer waiting to be told its story; it is already writing it,’ he notes.