Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, hosted a private roundtable with Invest Africa on the Digital Economy Roundtable, earlier this week.
This roundtable took place on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. Moderated by Shannon Stround, chief executive officer, US, Invest Africa, the session gathered a distinguished group of global investors, development finance institutions, policymakers, and technology leaders to evaluate the current state of investment in Africa’s digital economy and the infrastructure needed to scale it.
In attendance was Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Government of Nigeria, who spoke on the positive investment landscape in Nigeria’s digital economy. Other attendees include Haytham Elmaayergi, executive vice president of Global Trade at Afreximbank; Wale Adeosun, founder & CEO of Kuramo Capital; Yvonne Ike, managing director
and head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Bank of America; Bolaji Balogun, CEO of Chapel Hill Denham; and Miguel Azevedo, managing director EMEA at Citibank.
Flutterwave was represented by members of its senior leadership team, who led focused discussions across three strategic pillars, including: scaling digital infrastructure across borders, fintech integration and regulatory harmonisation, and mobilising investment capital for Africa’s digital economy.
Bankole Falade, Flutterwave’s chief legal, Regulatory, and Public Policy Officer, opened with a remark about Building Africa’s Payments Superhighway,” tracing the company’s decade-long journey from connecting fragmented payment networks to operating as a full financial operating system for Africa’s digital economy.
“When Flutterwave started 10 years ago, the primary goal was to connect firagmented payment infirastructure across the continent. When businesses are able to make and receive payments, economies grow and businesses thrive. What we’ve done is connect these disconnected islands with one API. As we look fiorward to the next 10 years, what we want to do is connect Afirica to the rest ofi the world, and the world to Afirica, with seamless payment solutions,” Bankole said.
Bridgit Antwi, head, Strategy and Operations, anchored the conversation on mobilising investment capital to enable ecosystem consolidation, while expanding access to short-term liquidity solutions that support real-time transaction flows and working capital needs.
Bolanle Baruwa, head, SME Business, contributed to the discussion on scaling digital infrastructure, advocating for the Payments Superhighway as a bridge for global capital deployment into Africa’s $1.5 trillion digital economy.
She further emphasized the importance of building systematic talent pipelines, shifting the narrative from basic digital training to creating sustainable employment that aligns with infrastructure growth.
Bankole Falade championed Regulatory Passporting to reduce cross-border entry costs and deepen continental integration for digital scale. Today,
Flutterwave has built the robust financial infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and bank-grade governance required to turn these strategic objectives into reality.
This reinforces a growing conviction that Africa remains one of the most compelling long-term investment opportunities globally, particularly across digital infrastructure, payments, fintech, and broader technology-enabled sectors.
Reform momentum is improving the investment climate, with macroeconomic adjustments, regulatory reforms, and policy modernisation in key markets creating stronger foundations for capital deployment.
While individual market opportunities are significant, scaling across borders was identified as the key to unlocking the next level of growth.
Deeper regional integration and interoperable systems will be essential for accessing larger addressable markets.
The roundtable was also attended by senior representatives from organisations including Afreximbank, Bank of America, British International Investment, Chapel Hill Denham, Citibank, Dalberg, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Gates Foundation, Google, Helios Towers, Kuramo Capital, Premier Invest, the Nigerian Exchange Group, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), UBA, and the World Bank Group.
It reflected a broader shift in investor sentiment: execution matters more now than narrative, with investors increasingly backing businesses and platforms capable of delivering at scale.
