Organized during the BAL Finals week, the event brought together leaders from sports, finance, public policy, technology, and investment to explore how inclusive digital infrastructure can support the next generation of African entrepreneurs and leaders.
Kigali, Rwanda, May 29, 2026: Wave Mobile Money reaffirmed its commitment to youth opportunities, digital innovation, and financial inclusion at the BAL Business Brunch in Kigali, a high-level meeting held during the BAL Finals week under the theme “Youth, Innovation, and Financial Inclusion: Building the Next Generation of African Leaders.”
The event brought together key players from sports, finance, public policy, technology, and investment for an in-depth discussion on how inclusive digital infrastructure can create opportunities for youth across the continent. It also provided a prime platform to articulate Wave’s financial inclusion mission with one of the most unifying sports and cultural events in Africa.
Held shortly after the Africa CEO Forum, the event extended Kigali’s role as a hub for major conversations shaping the growth, innovation, and emergence of the next generation of African leaders. For Wave, this Business Brunch served as a way to carry this momentum to another iconic platform: sports. It illustrates a growing awareness that youth culture, entrepreneurship, digital finance, and economic inclusion are now closely intertwined.
The panel brought together representatives from essential pillars of the continent’s growth ecosystem, including Amadou Gallo Fall, President of the Basketball Africa League, Coura Tine Sène, Regional Director and Head of Public Affairs at Wave Mobile Money, Dr. Diane Karusisi, CEO of the Bank of Kigali, and Yves Iradukunda, State Minister at the Ministry of ICT and Innovation of Rwanda. Together, they explored how cultural platforms, financial infrastructure, institutional capital, and favorable public policies can combine forces to support youth entrepreneurship, innovation, and inclusive growth.
For Wave, this exchange highlighted the role of simple, affordable, and reliable financial tools in helping young Africans realize their ambitions. Across the continent, youth are starting businesses, creating content, building communities, promoting culture, and inventing new forms of economic activity. Their ability to progress relies not only on inspiration or visibility, but also on access to financial infrastructure tailored to their daily realities.
“Throughout Africa, the new generation is not waiting for opportunities to come to them. They are creating their businesses, building their communities, shaping culture, and reinventing the contours of growth,” said Coura Tine Sène, Regional Director and Head of Public Affairs at Wave Mobile Money. “At Wave, our mission is to ensure that financial tools are simple, affordable, and accessible enough to support this momentum on a daily basis. Sport is one of the most powerful platforms to reach and inspire youth, and our partnership with BAL allows us to connect financial inclusion to culture, entrepreneurship, and ambition in a concrete and meaningful way.”
Wave’s commitment reflects a broader ambition: to go beyond mere brand visibility and engage in substantive conversations that matter for Africa’s future. By aligning its financial inclusion mission with platforms that directly speak to youth, Wave affirms its role as a company dedicated to fostering everyday economic participation — whether for small entrepreneurs, students, creators, athletes, informal sector workers, or project leaders.
The discussions also emphasized the importance of collaboration between the private sector, public institutions, financial actors, and cultural platforms. As the African digital economy continues to grow, inclusive growth will depend on the collective ability to build bridges between innovation and access, between public policy and practical usage, between continental discussions and the real needs of communities.
Through its engagement with basketball and youth-focused platforms, Wave makes sport a strategic space to deepen its relationships with stakeholders, strengthen its presence, and anchor its mission where young Africans live, interact, create, and build. This approach allows Wave to be present in moments that are not only visible, but truly meaningful for communities, entrepreneurs, creators, fans, and future leaders.
Financial inclusion is not just about access to an account or payment services. It is about integrating simple, reliable, and affordable financial tools into spaces where Africans’ lives, projects, and aspirations are already in motion.
By participating in this high-level conversation, Wave reaffirmed its commitment to building bridges between sports and economic inclusion, between youth culture and financial infrastructure, between continental dialogue and tangible impact on the ground.
About Wave
Wave Mobile Money offers simple, inclusive, and highly accessible digital financial services to millions of users across Africa. The company enables its clients to transfer money, make payments, and conduct their daily transactions at a low cost. Wave is the first unicorn in Francophone Africa and continues its mission: making financial services accessible to all.
