Dr Armstrong Ume Takang, Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), used his appearance before a packed room at GITEX Nigeria to confront a painful reality that many in the ecosystem discuss privately but rarely address on main stages: the historically low capital positioning by Nigerians in the country's teeming startup scene. MOFI, the vehicle through which the federal government holds and manages its investments and equity stakes, has in recent years been repositioned to play a more active role in mobilising domestic capital.

His argument was simple but piercing. Indigenous founders build brilliant solutions, yet when these startups become profitable or reach a liquidity event, the massive upside flows aggressively to offshore angel investors and venture capitalists.

The concern is far from hypothetical. Independent market data shows that in 2024 Nigeria led the continent in venture capital inflows, attracting roughly $1.18 billion of Africa's total $3.6 billion venture capital pool. The technology sector alone absorbed 82 per cent of all venture capital activity in the country between 2020 and 2024.

Because local capital participation remains disproportionately low at the early funding stages, however, the financial rewards of these successful ventures bypass the domestic economy. The innovation is local, but the wealth generated is exported. Takang described this dynamic as a monumental missed opportunity, and as he spoke, the gravity of the lost returns resonated with the founders and local investors in the room. The conversation quickly shifted from lamentation to a structural blueprint for reclaiming the financial benefits of local innovation.

GITEX's MINT AFRICA and the blueprint for indigenous ownership

That structural blueprint took centre stage with the official announcement of MINT AFRICA by GITEX. Launched under the broader theme of the future of banking and finance, the new platform is set to debut in 2027. MINT AFRICA will bring together money, innovation, new technology, and transparency to accelerate the transformation of the continent's financial economy. The launch extends GITEX's expanding footprint in Africa, where the organiser has already established regional editions as it courts one of the world's fastest-growing technology markets.

The platform will convene regulators, institutional investors, banks, and digital-asset innovators at a critical inflexion point where money is becoming programmable and real-world assets are being tokenised. Tokenisation, the issuance of rights to an asset on a blockchain, has gained global traction as financial institutions experiment with representing everything from bonds to real estate in digital form. For Takang, this shift toward programmable assets offers a direct solution to the problem of lost capital. He argued passionately for the need to tokenise government assets and make them widely available to domestic investors.

"As we create digital tools that allow us to tokenise assets and make those assets widely available to investors, are Nigerians going to continue taking a back seat while others see the value, invest and benefit from the upside?" Takang asked the audience. "Or are we going to become active participants in the evolving digital asset ecosystem?"

The push aligns with MOFI's expansion strategy. The agency recently initiated a partnership with the Nigerian Exchange to grow its Assets Under Management from N18 trillion to an ambitious N100 trillion within the next ten years. Tokenising state assets could provide the mechanism needed to democratise wealth creation, allowing ordinary citizens and local institutions to hold a stake in high-value national resources. How such an expansion interacts with Nigeria's evolving regulatory framework for digital assets, which has historically restricted access to crypto-related channels, remains a key question for implementation.

Lagos positions itself as the anchor of Africa's financial transformation

The urgency of this transition was echoed by other key figures at the event, where Lagos State made a powerful case for its role as the anchor of this financial revolution. Nigeria remains Africa's largest financial technology ecosystem, and Lagos sits at the intersection of market scale, entrepreneurial talent, and capital. The city is home to a disproportionate share of Nigeria's fintech companies, including several that have achieved unicorn valuations.

Tunbosun Alake, Honourable Commissioner for the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology in Lagos State, reinforced this narrative. He observed that Africa does not suffer from a shortage of financial innovation; rather, it lacks the specific conversations that turn raw innovation into signed, executed deals. The Future of Finance is explicitly built to close that gap, focusing on deal-making over mere celebration.

Engr. Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband and Innovation to the Governor of Lagos State, delivered a pragmatic assessment of the city's readiness. A digital economy cannot simply be regulated into existence, he noted; it requires fundamental infrastructure. Over the past seven years, Lagos has invested heavily in building the core pillars of connectivity, power, identity, and talent.

Oseni also had a direct message for the international investors crowding the venue. "Lagos is asking you to price us correctly," he stated. "We would rather have your capital than your admiration, and we would rather have your operational presence than your capital." He stressed that the programmable, cross-border future of African finance will inevitably settle somewhere, and it should rightfully settle in Lagos.

Closing Nigeria's financial inclusion gaps

The African Development Bank estimates that reforms spanning deeper capital markets and public-private partnerships could unlock as much as $1.43 trillion in financing annually. Capturing this value requires closing significant gaps in financial inclusion.

While adult account ownership in Nigeria increased from 45.3 per cent in 2021 to 63.3 per cent in 2024, only 9.1 per cent of the population borrowed through formal financial channels. That gap between access to accounts and actual use of formal financial services is a persistent challenge across African markets, where mobile money and agent networks have expanded entry points faster than credit depth.

Dr Nurudeen Abubakar Zauro, Technical Adviser to the President on Economic and Financial Inclusion, emphasised that reaching Nigeria's target of a $1 trillion economy demands extreme financial sector deepening and the formalisation of the informal sector. MINT AFRICA will focus precisely on converting these gaps into tangible economic opportunities. With its 2027 debut still ahead, the platform's early milestones, including its participant lineup and regulatory engagement, will offer the first indication of whether it can translate ambition into executed deals.