Dakar: Next Fintech Forum 2025

📅 November 19–20, 2025
📍 Azalaï Hotel, Dakar – Senegal

General Overview

West Africa, and Africa as a whole, is undergoing a remarkable digital transformation, largely driven by the rapid growth of financial technologies (fintech). Developing national and regional fintech strategies has become essential to stimulate economic growth, foster financial inclusion, and ensure a sustainable transition of financial ecosystems.

Within this dynamic, the Next Fintech Forum 2025 aims to serve as a platform for dialogue and reflection, bringing together policymakers, regulators, entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and technology partners. The goal is to co-create strategies adapted to African realities while integrating global best practices.

Theme 2025:
Fintech for the Regions: Sustainable, Inclusive, Transformative.

Main Objectives

• Analyze fintech trends and opportunities in Africa.

• Define the pillars of sustainable and inclusive national and regional fintech strategies.

• Strengthen collaboration between telcos, banks, fintechs, regulators, and academia.

• Provide policy recommendations to support innovation.

• Showcase best practices and successful use cases from Africa and beyond.

Program and Key Topics

Day 1 – Wednesday, November 19, 2025

🔹 Opening Keynote: The rise of fintechs in the WAEMU region: challenges and opportunities for sustainable transformation
🔹 Panel 1: Regional fintech strategy: what roadmap for successful financial inclusion?
🔹 Teach-in Session: Regulation and innovation: finding the balance for a thriving fintech ecosystem
🔹 Workshop: Building social partnerships between telcos, banks, fintechs, and regulators
🔹 Fireside Chat: The impact of fintechs on SMEs and local economies
🔹 Study Presentation: WAEMU Fintech Outlook 2025
🔹 Award Ceremony: Fintech Champion 2025

Day 2 – Thursday, November 20, 2025

🔹 Keynote: AI and emerging technologies in financial inclusion
🔹 Panel 2: Mobile money and digital payments: towards a fully digitized African economy?
🔹 Discovery Session: Interoperability and open banking: a revolution for the union’s financial system?
🔹 Workshop: Structuring fintech financing: challenges and opportunities in the WAEMU region
🔹 Keynote: Fintechs as drivers of sustainable development in the WAEMU zone
🔹 Panel 3: Financial inclusion for vulnerable populations: what role for fintechs?
🔹 Teach-in Session: Cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and sustainable finance: myth or reality?
🔹 Workshop: Research, training, and education serving the fintech ecosystem
🔹 Closing Session: Towards a regional roadmap for fintech followed by a networking cocktail

A Must-Attend Gathering

The Next Fintech Forum 2025 will be a key event to:

• Understand the evolution of fintech in West Africa and across the continent;

• Identify financing and investment opportunities;

• Promote structured public-private partnerships;

• Position fintech at the heart of sustainable growth, financial inclusion, and regional economic development.