CFTC Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson: Africa Fintech Summit 2025 Keynote Remarks - Inspiring A World Of Innovation

It is a privilege to join you today to kick-off the Africa Fintech Summit of 2025. Twice a year this convening serves as one of the largest gatherings of Africa’s Fintech Community—connecting entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators during the International Monetary Fund/World Bank spring meeting week in Washington, DC. and in the fall in Africa. My tremendous thanks to the organizers and hosts. 

As you arrived this morning, I am sure you were able to appreciate the perfect spring weather and blooming cherry blossoms that we ordered for you this week. There are few places in DC that are lovelier this time of year than where we sit, here in Georgetown. 

In my career, I have learned about entrepreneurship from mentors and clients at the world’s largest investment banks, small start-ups, and family-founded businesses. My family’s history as entrepreneurs and informal investors in community small businesses dates to the mid-1800s here in the United States. Perhaps one day, I will have the opportunity to continue this tradition and help fund the businesses of innovative founders. 

Today, I am a Commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, nominated by former President Biden and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate.[1] At the CFTC, we oversee U.S. markets and market participants for derivatives contracts that reference commodities. According to a Bank for International Settlements report, the notional value of the global derivatives market is over $730 trillion.[2] In recent years, courts and Congress have indicated intentions to expand the CFTC’s mandate to include oversight of emerging technologies, including distributed digital ledger technologies commonly referred to as blockchain technologies, digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, and certain platforms within the assemblage of technologies referred to as artificial intelligence. 

African Fintech Firms Inspire a World of Innovation

African fintech firms demonstrate curiosity, creativity, and driven commitment to deliver first-rate fintech products and services to consumers and businesses on the continent and around the world.   

During my time as a CFTC Commissioner, I have traveled to South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, and Ghana to meet with fintech entrepreneurs. I have witnessed first-hand the exceptional creativity and curiosity that drives African fintech entrepreneurs. As you well know from CNBC’s announcement last year, six African fintech firms are among the world’s top fintech companies PalmPay, Flutterwave, Kuda, MTN, Piggvest, and Yoco.[3] African fintech firms have emerged from every corner of the continent. 

In various stages of development—from incubators to early stages (pre-seed) capital raising to joint ventures with Google, Microsoft, and AWS—African fintech firms enhance financial accessibility, inclusivity, and consumer empowerment. These businesses integrate the most advanced technologies available, reflect global thought leadership in the potential for emerging technologies to reshape access and opportunities for both consumer and commercial finance, and create pathways for inclusion that have inspired creative consumer finance solutions around the globe.

As you know well, the recipe for entrepreneurial success begins with a great idea. Yet, building opportunities in fast-moving, high-tech markets requires a number of critical inputs as well as conditions to facilitate growth and development. Entrepreneurs or innovators, funders or sources of capital, and, yes, regulators all have an important role to play in promoting responsible innovation and growth. It has been my pleasure to collaborate with regulators around the continent as they consider ways to spur innovation and growth. Last year, during my keynote remarks at the South African Reserve Bank Fintech Summit in Johannesburg[4] and at the beginning of this year in Ghana, I emphasized the opportunities for African fintech firms to innovate using AI in consumer finance. 

The Rise of AI in Fintech

As I noted in my opening remarks at The South African Reserve Bank Fintech Summit last year,

While our markets have long relied upon AI for a variety of risk management and predictive pricing functions, we are witnessing rapid developments beyond reinforcement learning and neural networks in generative AI.

Increasingly, diverse industries and sectors of our economy identify opportunities to integrate aspects of the assemblage of technologies that we commonly describe as AI or AI technologies. AI enables doctors to diagnose and map diseases earlier, faster, and with greater accuracy than ever before in the history of medicine. Farmers who cultivate crops that feed [] nation[s] may integrate AI to better manage access to vital resources such as freshwater, enabling more efficient irrigation, fertilization, and crop rotation leading to more sustainable farming.

In our markets, AI offers similar efficiencies for faster trade execution and settlement, more accurate pricing prediction, and more precise risk management oversight. Markets have witnessed increasing adoption of AI including AI-driven investment advising, trade execution, risk management, and market surveillance.[5]

Financial services firms are fully embracing the powers of AI, making increasingly large investments in infrastructure to support AI and expanding the roster of use cases. One economist estimates that investments in AI may reach $97 billion by 2027.[6] 

Notable Challenges for Inclusion 

As AI adoption expands across markets, however, there are a number of notable challenges. For many, the costs of relying on large language models or agentic AI will place these technologies beyond the resources of their businesses. 

Accessibility and Inclusivity Challenges for Global Competitors 

The high cost of developing advanced AI technologies and the infrastructure to support their use poses significant accessibility and inclusivity barriers, particularly disadvantaging smaller competitors and institutions in emerging markets. These barriers limit the widespread adoption of AI-driven financial solutions, which can disproportionately affect underserved and economically disadvantaged populations who could most benefit from improved financial services. This can make it exceptionally hard for emerging companies to incorporate AI into their services if the infrastructure does not already exist. To that end, we are seeing private companies form partnerships to make necessary investments to scale up AI capabilities in Africa, like Cassava Technologies, a global technology leader, and their partnership with Nvidia to develop Africa’s first AI factory in South Africa.[7] 

At the Commission, we have also explored regulatory frameworks addressing AI’s role in financial markets through an ongoing conversation with market participants.[8] The Commission has acknowledged the potential for AI-driven systems to impact consumer protection indirectly through enhanced market integrity and risk management protocols, but it has also acknowledged the dangers that consumers can face.[9] 

I have repeatedly emphasized the need to establish robust principles-based regulatory frameworks at the Commission to combat consumer-facing issues like AI-enabled market manipulation and fraud, through my repeated emphasis on the need to promote the explainability of AI models, the implementation of data controls and measures to address bias, clear governance frameworks for accountability and testing, and the establishment of an interagency task force and an AI Fraud Task Force to tackle fraud full force.[10] In particular, firms implementing this technology in consumer-facing ways must adhere to existing laws on fairness, transparency, and privacy.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has highlighted the importance of international collaboration in setting standards for responsible AI use, advocating for coordinated frameworks that ensure consumer protection, fairness, and transparency in AI-powered financial services globally.[11] International collaboration amongst regulators can aid in streamlining the growing body of international standards which can be difficult to navigate and present a significant barrier to emerging companies. Meanwhile, countries like Singapore have also made significant strides in regulating and supporting consumer-facing AI applications through initiatives like the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s regulatory sandbox framework, allowing fintech startups to test AI-driven solutions in controlled environments, balancing innovation with consumer protection.[12]

Africa’s Embrace of AI to Promote Accessibility, Consumer Interaction, and Further Innovation

Through strategic partnerships between AI startups, larger corporations, and governmental agencies, increased access to advanced AI technologies and traditional financial services have been more readily obtainable. Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO and founder of M-Pesa, and others demonstrate how strategic partnerships, cost-effective approaches, and mobile-first innovations can significantly reduce barriers, enabling broader AI adoption and the growth of consumer inclusive financial services. M-Pesa, a mobile money services platform, which hosts millions of customers and facilitates billions in transactions per year, may be used to deposit money into an account, “store it on … cell phones, send balances using PINs secured by SMS text messages, and enable buyers and sellers of goods to redeem and access purchases as well as deposits for regular money…. M-Pesa represents the potential to develop platforms that give customers access to banking services, reduce transaction costs, and otherwise overcome the endemic frictions that have challenged access to financial services for millions.”[13] 

M-Pesa’s business model is particularly interesting because of how effectively it has created access for individuals who have historically lacked access to basic financial services. I previously traveled to Kenya to meet with the CEO and President of M-Pesa, as well as central bankers, the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, and deputy governors and market regulators, to discuss the uptick in retail market participation and the considerations for consumer protection that come with the increased accessibility to financial markets. 

Conclusion

Continued partnerships between African fintech innovators, African regulators, and U.S. regulators and institutions can help foster shared growth and technological advancement for both parties. Such collaborations offer significant opportunities, combining African innovation in financial inclusion and mobile technologies with U.S. strengths in regulatory frameworks, research, and infrastructure. These synergistic relationships can enhance global fintech capabilities, drive inclusive economic growth, and promote greater financial stability and consumer protection worldwide.

Conferences like the one we are participating in today are of vital importance to the notion of collaboration. The issues discussed, the connections made, and the lessons shared here today can help propel markets forward in a way that not only protects the consumer but also empowers the consumer.

Thank you again for allowing me to join you today. I look forward to hearing from each of the panels and speakers and continuing to develop great relationships with the leading voices in fintech in Africa.

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