By Olakunle Oke
Two of the most influential voices in global technology, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, CEO of M-PESA, and Dr Shivagami Gugan, Chief Technology Officer for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, AWS, delivered groundbreaking insights at the Zenith Tech Fair 5.0, highlighting Africa’s strategic position in the future of digital money, AI innovation, and autonomous intelligent systems.
Speaking first, Lopokoiyit positioned Africa as the world’s next major technology hub, powered by its young population, rising middle class, and rapid digital adoption.
He argued that African companies have the potential to rival the world’s biggest tech giants, noting that if M-PESA were valued on U.S. markets, it could command a valuation between $150 billion and $200 billion. He urged Africans to tell their own stories more boldly to counter global undervaluation of African innovations.
Lopokoiyit highlighted significant trends shaping the future of money, from digital banking and crypto adoption to the rise of agentic AI.
He predicted that traditional apps will fade as payment interactions become invisible, automated, and personalised by AI agents capable of orchestrating transactions across platforms.
With Nigeria leading global stablecoin adoption, he warned that African regulators must guard against unchecked dollarisation, which could drain domestic economic value.
The M-PESA CEO also disclosed the sheer scale of the platform’s impact: over $1.4 billion moved daily—five times PayPal’s transaction volume—and more than 68 million customers served across six markets.
Despite this scale, he emphasised the need for Africans to determine their digital future and build systems tailored to African realities.
Taking the stage next, Dr Shivagami Gugan expanded the conversation into the fast-moving world of autonomous AI.
She explained how the global shift is moving from basic automation to intelligent, goal-driven agent ecosystems capable of reasoning, using tools, and collaborating with other agents. With innovations emerging weekly, she said organisations must prepare for a world where AI systems communicate through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a new standard that will define the next generation of intelligent integrations.
Dr Gugan revealed that Amazon is rebuilding Alexa using fully autonomous agent frameworks and showcased Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, as an example of how AI is reshaping customer interaction. She forecast that voice-driven experiences will dominate within the next three years as users gravitate toward simpler, more intuitive interfaces.
She also highlighted the transformative power of AI-driven software development lifecycles, noting Amazon’s migration of 10,000 applications using autonomous agents—a shift that saved the company millions and dramatically reduced technical debt.
But she warned that many organisations fail because they lack strong data foundations, stressing that regulated industries like banking are outperforming others due to disciplined data governance.
Dr Gugan cautioned that as AI adoption rises, cybercrime is escalating at unprecedented levels, with a 284 percent increase since 2022. She urged leaders to study fourth-party model risks, cultural biases embedded in foreign-trained models, and vulnerabilities that could compromise local systems. She highlighted the Ragnar Report as essential reading for executives deploying AI at scale.
Both keynote speakers agreed that Africa’s next phase of digital evolution hinges on responsible AI deployment, strong regulatory frameworks, and the capacity to build systems that work for African realities.
Lopokoiyit emphasised the need to anchor digital money within the continent, while Dr Gugan stressed the necessity of secure data, digital talent, and resilient AI architectures.
