For the fourth year running, the Upya team made the trip to Nairobi for the Africa Tech Summit (ATS). It remains one of the continent’s key gatherings for technology, innovation, and ecosystem building. This year’s edition was our most energizing yet.
Beyond the panels and product demos, ATS is where you feel the pulse of what is actually happening on the ground across African markets. Two themes stood out in 2026 that we believe will have a direct impact on the companies we work with and the solutions we build.
1. Pan-African payment gateways: still evolving, now with blockchain in the mix
Payment infrastructure has long been a defining challenge and opportunity in African markets. This year, it remained the dominant topic on the ATS floor. A new element was added to the conversation: blockchain and Bitcoin.
We caught up with with our friends at Pawapay, who are working to build pan-African payment solutions across a deeply fragmented landscape. Every country comes with its own mobile money providers, regulatory frameworks, and coverage gaps. What struck us is how closely this mirrors the challenge our own customers face.
Upya’s customers are increasingly pan-African operators themselves. They run distribution networks across multiple countries, managing field agents, payments, and portfolios at scale. They look to Upya to provide a centralized ERP/CRM solution that brings operational clarity across all their markets, regardless of country-specific complexity. The fragmentation in payments is one they live with daily.
What’s exciting about this moment is that the solutions being built are not copies of Western fintech. They are African-first innovations, designed for African realities. Just as mobile money short-circuited traditional banking, blockchain-powered payment rails may do the same for cross-border transactions. This is a space we are watching closely.
2. Digital identity: the foundation of responsible PAYGO
What we are taking back to the product
The second standout theme at ATS 2026 was digital identity verification, and for good reason. Two companies in particular caught our attention: Kagoo and Identy. Both are building fast, scalable, and compliant identity solutions for African markets.
This is directly relevant to one of the fastest-growing verticals we serve: PAYGO smartphones.
Across many African markets, access to smartphones is increasingly financed through credit models, enabling customers to pay in installments rather than upfront. This unlocks real access and inclusion. But it also creates a non-negotiable requirement: you need to know exactly who you are onboarding.
Identity verification in PAYGO is not a compliance checkbox. It is the foundation of responsible lending, fraud prevention, and long-term portfolio health. Strong verification helps operators:
- Reduce fraud and duplicate applications
- Improve underwriting accuracy
- Build trust with financing partners
- Protect customers from identity misuse
At Upya, we support companies selling smartphones on credit by streamlining and strengthening the end-customer onboarding process, from first application to activation. Ensuring the right customer is properly verified is key to a smooth experience and sound risk control.
We also know that identity verification capabilities vary significantly across markets, and what works in one country may not be available or enforceable in another. That is why, alongside strong onboarding workflows, Upya also provides distributors with device locking mechanisms for major brands including Samsung, Tecno, Infinix, and Itel, giving operators a critical risk management tool when repayments are at risk.
Learn more about our PAYGO Smartphone solutions.
Every year, ATS gives us more than inspiration, it gives us direction. The conversations we have in Nairobi shape how we think about where the ecosystem is heading and where Upya needs to evolve.
This year, the signals are clear: our customers need a platform that grows with their pan-African ambitions, supports increasingly complex payment environments, and helps them onboard and manage customers responsibly at scale. These are not future challenges, they are present ones.
We left Nairobi energised, and we are already at work.
Interested in how Upya supports last-mile distributors across Africa, Asia, and Latin America? Visit upya.io or get in touch with our team.