Highlights from Africa Tech Summit
February 19 2025
by Victoria Calmon
Here's a look back on the Africa Tech Summit from February 11-13th, side events, presentations and announcements throughout the week in Nairobi.
Web3 Mixer: Cocktails & Convos
Mento Labs, along with our partners Celo Foundation, cLabs, Haraka, Clixpesa, Mercy Corps Ventures, Fonbnk, Kickstarter, Pretium Finance, MiniPay, and Celo Africa DAO, hosted a night of fun, food, insightful conversations, networking, and cocktails to kick off Africa Tech Summit week in Nairobi. This was a great opportunity to interact with founders, developers, community members, investors, and tech enthusiasts from across the continent and around the world.
Victoria Calmon from Mento Labs moderated a panel on “Building a Stablecoin Ecosystem” featuring Will Le, CEO & Co-Founder of Haraka, Derrick Kachisa from Clixpesa, Derrick Bundi, CEO of Pretium and Duncan Muchangi, Head of Business Development at Fonbnk.
Africa Tech Summit Nairobi
For the 2nd year in a row, Mento was present at the Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi, where African Tech connects. ATS brings together African and international players to collaborate under one roof, and delivers unrivalled insight, networking and business opportunities for international tech companies, industry leaders, start-ups, media and investors serious about African technology.
Mento shared a booth with MiniPay and Celo. Highlights of Day 1 included a panel on "Stablecoins in Africa: Stability & Innovation Powering Digital Payments" featuring Daniel Kimotho, Ecosystem & Strategic Partnerships at Celo Foundation, Sébastien Piolat, Business Development Director for Web3 at Opera, and Victoria Calmon, Head of Marketing & Communications at Mento Labs, moderated by Duncan Muchangi, Head of Business Development, at Fonbnk.
During the discussion, Victoria shared insights from the recent Mento user survey conducted in Africa in December, with the main use cases for stablecoins being savings and payments. Read the full survey here. She also shared insights on the challenges for stablecoin adoption and the opportunities for stablecoins in Africa. For example, challenges include the complexity of crypto adoption and the need for a seamless user experience; financial literacy and trust are also barriers, with skepticism fueled by past scams; and high on/off-ramp fees and unreliable internet access further hinder accessibility to stablecoin adoption across the continent.
Opportunities for stablecoin adoption are Africa’s young and digital-savvy population that is eager for innovation; lower remittance costs through stablecoins, the possibility to hedge against inflation, enhancing e-commerce and cross-border trade; and finally, DeFi offers new credit and savings solutions for users beyond traditional banking.
The panel also shared updates on the MiniPay wallet that recently passed the milestone of 5M users in over 50 countries. The “drag & drop” swaps feature enabling users to seamlessly swap between their cUSD, USDT and USDC Pockets in MiniPay is powered by Mento.
Make Donations in cUSD in MiniPay
Volunteers from CodeYetu were present at ATS to share their experiences in teaching underprivileged kids in Kenya how to code. You can support their cause by making a donation in cUSD in MiniPay.
cKES Campaign with Pretium
The standalone version of the Pretium app was launched during ATS, with a user activation campaign including cKES cashlinks, onboarding and cashback rewards. Pretium enables users to seamlessly make payments for utilities and at supermarkets, grocery stores, and restaurants using Mento decentralized stablecoins such as cKES or cUSD. On the merchant side, transactions are automatically settled in local currencies via mobile money (i.e. M-PESA in Kenya), eliminating the need for intermediaries, and increasing accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.
“Blockchain technology isn’t just about holding or trading digital assets—it’s a payment infrastructure that can be leveraged for everyday transactions. Pretium represents a significant step forward in bridging the gap between existing payment rails and digital assets, making digital asset payments seamless and accessible,” said Derrick Bundi, CEO of Pretium.
Features of Pretium include:
* Merchant Payments – Pay merchants using digital assets with automatic settlement in local currencies.
* Send Money – Easily transfer funds to mobile networks or bank accounts.
* Cross-Border Payments – Instantly send money across borders to friends and family.
* Savings and Hedge Against Inflation – Store funds in digital assets to protect against inflation while retaining the ability to spend seamlessly.
Download Pretium on the Google Play store.
Swypt Announced Integration of cKES
Swypt, a leading digital payments platform, announced the integration of cKES, Kenya’s first decentralized stablecoin on Mento pegged 1:1 to the Kenyan Shilling. This groundbreaking integration allows users to seamlessly purchase, spend, and transfer cKES across Swypt’s extensive merchant and peer network.
“Swypt’s integration with cKES is transforming African commerce by reducing transaction costs for both retail and enterprise businesses while streamlining intra-Africa and global trade,” said Michael Kazungu, Ecosystem Manager at Swypt.
Coming Next
We were thrilled to have connected with partners, builders and users from across the ecosystem. The Mento team will be attending these upcoming events: ETHDenver and Mobile World Congress. Hope to meet you there!
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