At the inaugural MTN Fintech Summit 2025 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the CEO of MobileMoney Limited, Shaibu Haruna, made a bold call for digital inclusion across Africa.

Speaking on the panel “Leading Through Disruption: The CEO Perspective on Regulation, Innovation, and Financial Inclusion”, he stressed that financial inclusion should not remain a buzzword but be translated into real access for all.

“Financial inclusion has become a buzzword and everybody’s using it, but for me, it’s a very simple thing. It’s about offering digital inclusion for every single person,” Mr Shaibu said.

He emphasised that access must cut across geography, devices, and circumstances.

“That means that every single African has the power of being part of the financial ecosystem in a very convenient manner and a very accessible manner, irrespective of whether you live in the most remote part of Africa, and what kind of device you’re using, or what the needs, whatever need you have, you should be able to have access to affordable and convenient digital financial services.”

Echoing this vision, Mudassar Aqil, MTN Group Fintech Executive for Banktech, underlined the urgency of democratising finance on the continent.

“Finance is not a privilege, but it’s a right for every person. So the mandate, which is given to me, is essentially democratising access to credit for everyone across Africa,” he said.

He added that digital tools and data intelligence are central to delivering this promise.

“We’re using the digital tools to make that happen. And then data is our friend, so we use data to create intelligence to understand the risk and then make affordable, fair, transparent credit available to everyone across the MTN footprint.”

The session, which also featured MTN MoMo CEOs from Uganda, Cameroon, and South Africa, spotlighted how fintech innovation, regulation, and data can drive genuine financial inclusion.