Co-hosted by M. Scott Havens, CEO, Bloomberg Media and Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Bloomberg News, and Erana Stennett, Corporate Philanthropy Middle East and Africa, Bloomberg.

This year’s convening returns to South Africa, which was the inaugural host of ABMI in 2015, resuming in person for the first time since 2019.

This sixth edition of the forum follows successful gatherings in Senegal (2019), Zambia (2018), Ghana (2017), Kenya (2016), South Africa (2015) and the virtual ‘ABMI Chats’ series in 2020 and 2021.

Leaders at this year’s convening will examine innovative business solutions re-shaping and contributing to the future of media and journalism both in Africa and globally.

The gathering will provide a unique, forward-looking platform for actionable dialogue and peer-learning as media leaders in Africa prepare for journalism in the digital age.

Scott Havens, CEO, Bloomberg Media said:

‘Against the backdrop of a fragmented global media landscape and challenges to business models at both a local and global level, this forum provides an opportunity for fresh approaches, ideas and solutions to building sustainable media business models in Africa and beyond’.

Matthew Winkler, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Bloomberg News said:

‘ABMI comes at a time of growing optimism around Africa’s economic potential and aims to act as a platform for action to catalyse investment, growth, and development by contributing to the strengthening of business and financial reporting on the continent’.

This year’s convening focuses on the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of media in Africa. Key themes to be explored include the impact of new technologies, AI, and the future shape of work in newsrooms, along with a focus on the sustainability of legacy media across the continent against the backdrop of increased global competition.

There will also be analysis of the current state of the media landscape in Africa and globally.

Speakers at this year’s forum include:

• Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO, Big Cabal,
• Styli Charalambous, CEO, Daily Maverick,
• Paul Cheung, Chief Executive Officer, The Center for Public Integrity
• Thembisa Faukude, CEO, Mail & Guardian
• Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director, and Chief Curator, Zeitz MOCCAA
• Prof. Lesley Lokko, Founder, African Futures Institute
• Nyimpini Mabunda, CEO, General Electric Southern Africa
• Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Managing Director, Africa and the Middle East, Spotify
• Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa, Co-Founder and CEO, Rappler
• Pamella Sittoni, Executive Editor and Managing Editor, The Nation Media Group
• Monde Twala, Senior Vice President & GM Paramount Africa & Lead BET International, Paramount International

The annual event is a component of the Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa (BMIA), a pan-African program launched by Michael R. Bloomberg in 2014.

The initiative is designed to advance business journalism in Africa and accelerate development of a globally competitive media and financial reporting industry.

The program delivers cross-disciplinary educational programs and mid-career fellowships to increase the number of highly trained business and financial journalists, as well as supports research to stimulate new media innovations.

It is also designed to convene leaders to promote interactive dialogue and build strong relationships to enhance the quality of financial coverage and the availability of reliable and timely data on the continent.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg expanded its executive education program in business and financial journalism, BMIA Financial Journalism Training (FJT), to Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal. Offering the program in French for the first time, more than 100 delegates joined the new training cohorts.

This follows the successful implementation of the program in Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

To date, the FJT program has reached 800 participants from 16 countries across the Continent.

This move comes after MasterCard invested $100 million two years ago in Airtel mobile commerce BV, Airtel Mobile Money. With this investment, MasterCard acquired a minority stake in the mobile money arm of the company.

MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) offers digital services and financial solutions to over 46 million customers across 21 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

During the first half of the year, MoMo’s transaction volume increased by 37%, leading to its valuation of $8.3 billion. This growth was driven by a shortage of funds in the first quarter (Q1) of the year.

MasterCard’s investment in MoMo aims to enhance its capabilities and expand its reach. This would enable MasterCard to integrate its virtual payment services with the MTN wallet, allowing customers to make payments without needing a bank account.

According to Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO, the agreement would be drafted as a business collaboration on payments and remittances using Mastercard’s technical infrastructure to develop throughout Africa and an investment in a minority share. Bloomberg had noted that the number of shares would be disclosed after the deal was complete.

Mupita added that the firm had a strong result in H1 23 and achieved good strategic progress, even in a challenging macroeconomic environment. He noted that the Group was very encouraged by the increased network availability in South Africa as a result of its investment in power resilience, which led to a better Q2 23 performance than Q1 23.

With this significant investment by MasterCard, the African e-commerce market would open up to people worldwide, positioning Africa as a bright spot in the global economic landscape.

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[PROMOTED CONTENT]

His estimated net worth is now around $192 billion, surpassing Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, who has a net worth of $187 billion.

These two individuals, referred to as centibillionaires, have been closely competing for the top spot for several months.

Bernard Arnault’s wealth experienced a decline this week following a drop in LVMH’s stock on Wednesday, as reported by Bloomberg.

Arnault had surpassed Musk in December when his wealth surged due to increased sales in luxury goods, which drove up LVMH’s stock price. LVMH, a major conglomerate, is home to renowned brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Celine.

Elon Musk’s rise in the rankings of the world’s wealthiest individuals has been remarkable in recent years, largely due to the success of Tesla, the electric automaker.

His primary asset is Tesla’s stock, of which he owns approximately 13%, according to Bloomberg.

In addition to Tesla, Musk also serves as the CEO of SpaceX, a space exploration company, and is the owner of the social network Twitter

Fintech Association of Nigeria (FinTechNGR), saw over 25% growth in membership, with NowNow, Network International and many others joining the Association.

Mr. Ade Bajomo, the President of FinTechNGR, disclosed this in his goodwill message to stakeholders, this week in Lagos.

He said that, as an Association, they are faced with the dire need to galvanize the ecosystem; to respond positively and creatively to the sometimes-gloomy global economic outlook; support the growth of the businesses of the Stakeholders; and assist regulators and the government in creating an enabling environment for innovation, economic growth and employment.

Bajomo also highlighted the effect of “japa syndrome”  on the industry, stressing that this is leading to shortage of human talents coupled with the challenges of the cryptocurrency sector.

Despite the challenges, he said the Nigerian FinTech ecosystem maintained its growth trajectory within the African continent In the year under review, Nigerian FinTech startups raised a whopping $1.2B out of $4.6B total raised by African startups as of December 1, 2022, according to TechNext report.

“Major beneficiaries include Flutterwave ($250m), Interswitch ($100m), Moove ($105m), TeamApt ($50m), and Vendease ($30m).

“Nigeria’s FinTech ecosystem’s stronger and improved brand appeal to global investors shows that Nigeria is an economy positioned for growth, financial inclusion and a narrowing poverty gap.

“Nigeria was ranked as 3rd top crypto trading country in the world by Bloomberg, with 63.8 million active traders”.

This implies Nigerians trading in Crypto is higher than the number of financially inclusive people, which Bajomo said poses a major challenge “for us in the fintech ecosystem and demystifies the issue of illiteracy as a challenge”.

“What is obvious is that people want a return on investments, convenience and a regulated DEFI environment”.

He said FintechNGR must continue to develop robust venture capital and private equity channels to support innovators that have significant growth potential.

“Simplifying and optimizing the process of raising capital would allow more investors to benefit from the growth of these companies and create wealth for the economy.

Without a doubt, FintechNGR played a key role as an enabler of these feats; the Association provided direction and support in various ways such as:

• Holding its first Annual Outlook webinar
• Holding its first Annual Award event “Fintech Platinum Award”
• The second graduation of the DigiStuds project, a Digital Academy Project aimed at equipping 500,000 students of public tertiary institutions in Nigeria with relevant digital skills.
• The sustainability of the Reguvators’ Forum, a platform of interaction between regulators and innovators in Nigeria created to enable the stakeholders to collaborate and co-create solutions for balancing innovation and regulation.
• Deepening collaboration and technical skills through various training and knowledge events such as the Nigeria FinTech Week (NFW), Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF), Intercontinental Webinars and various ad-hoc interventions on regulations.
• FintechNGR Stakeholders engaging with CBN on solutions to improve eNaira adoption.
• MOU with CIBN and FSI on Fintech certification in Nigeria.
• The NFW2022 was a major success and the NFW2023 will be even better.

“Therefore, it is no surprise that FintechNGR Membership grew by 25%, to 343 as we attracted new strategic members such as NowNow and Network International and many others, who are keen to take part in the critical role we play and the impact we have on the ecosystem as an Association.

“We also experienced the renewal of existing Stakeholders and several upgrades of membership plans to a higher category. For this, I want to say thank you for aiding the improved visibility of the Association. Because of you all, we fostered more strategic alliances and deeper engagements such as more meaningful roundtable discussions with Regulators and wider industry participants.

“I would also like to thank our Board of Trustees, Governing Council, GovCo and the very able management team for providing exemplary leadership and direction in 2022.

“More importantly, was that 2022 was an election year leading to a new crop of GovCo members to steer the Association for the next two years. I do not doubt the quality of people in the newly constituted GovCo and its ability to scale the Association to a new level”.

2023:

The FinTechNGR President expressed optimisms about the new year. He said:

“As we look forward to consolidating our gains and sustaining the momentum as an ecosystem in 2023, I would like to you everyone to leverage the platforms created by the Association in scaling the Nigerian FinTech ecosystem and further increasing our visibility on the global scale, having earned a worthy seat on the table when it comes to advancements in FinTech related matters in our country and beyond. This year, we will continue to drive the relentless growth of innovative solutions and start-ups within our ecosystem and membership network.

“I know we can count on each other to drive our industry to much greater heights in 2023. Let’s make this happen”.