{"id":468299,"date":"2026-09-07T15:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.afis.africa\/sb_session\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T15:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:00:48","slug":"ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future","status":"publish","type":"sb_session","link":"https:\/\/www.afis.africa\/en\/sb_session\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Africa\u2019s biggest banks are building neobanks and its leading fintechs are turning into banks. Nigerian unicorns Paystack and Flutterwave both secured microfinance bank licences in their home markets this year. Wave established Wave Bank Africa in late 2025 in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, while in Kenya Nigeria\u2019s Moniepoint bought Sumac Microfinance Bank in March 2026, taking control of a licensed microfinance bank. Legacy banks are responding. Attijariwafa Bank this year launched <em>\u201cSimple.\u201d<\/em>, Morocco\u2019s first neobank, ahead of Revolut\u2019s expected entry. As Standard Bank Group\u2019s CEO points to <em>\u201cintensifying competition\u201d<\/em> from fintechs, how will banks decide how much of their business to unbundle, which segments to defend, and whether to compete, partner with or acquire the fintechs eating at their margins?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key points<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Neobanks vs incumbents: Can large African banking groups build agile digital brands without cannibalising their core businesses?<\/li>\n<li>Fintech as threat or partner: When does acquisition make more sense than internal innovation?<\/li>\n<li>How can banks achieve sustainable revenues in a mobile-first, low-fee competitive landscape?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","evenement-salon":[250],"class_list":["post-468299","sb_session","type-sb_session","status-publish","hentry","evenement-salon-250"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future? - The African Financial Summit Platform<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.afis.africa\/en\/sb_session\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future? - The African Financial Summit Platform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa\u2019s biggest banks are building neobanks and its leading fintechs are turning into banks. Nigerian unicorns Paystack and Flutterwave both secured microfinance bank licences in their home markets this year. Wave established Wave Bank Africa in late 2025 in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, while in Kenya Nigeria\u2019s Moniepoint bought Sumac Microfinance Bank in March 2026, taking control [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.afis.africa\/en\/sb_session\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The African Financial Summit Platform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-18T14:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/en\\\/sb_session\\\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/en\\\/sb_session\\\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\\\/\",\"name\":\"CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future? - The African Financial Summit Platform\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-07T14:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-18T14:00:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/en\\\/sb_session\\\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/en\\\/sb_session\\\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/en\\\/sb_session\\\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/\",\"name\":\"The African Financial Summit Platform\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The African Financial Summit Platform\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/cropped-AFIS-1-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/cropped-AFIS-1-1.jpg\",\"width\":529,\"height\":191,\"caption\":\"The African Financial Summit Platform\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.afis.africa\\\/fr\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future? - The African Financial Summit Platform","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.afis.africa\/en\/sb_session\/ceo-talk-africas-banking-giants-vs-digital-challengers-who-owns-the-future\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"CEO Talk | Africa\u2019s banking giants vs digital challengers: Who owns the future? - The African Financial Summit Platform","og_description":"Africa\u2019s biggest banks are building neobanks and its leading fintechs are turning into banks. Nigerian unicorns Paystack and Flutterwave both secured microfinance bank licences in their home markets this year. 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