Equity Group Holdings, the AfricaNenda Foundation, and the Gates Foundation have forged a strategic partnership to accelerate the rollout of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) across Africa.
Announced in Nairobi, the collaboration arrives alongside a major leadership milestone: Equity Group Managing Director and CEO, Dr. James Mwangi, has been officially appointed as the Continental DPI Champion. In this inaugural role, Dr. Mwangi will lead advocacy, policy engagement, and cross-sector collaboration to drive Africa’s digital transformation and bring millions of unbanked citizens into the formal economy.
Despite the rapid proliferation of mobile money across Africa, a stark reality remains: nearly 400 million people still lack access to formal financial services. This partnership aims to bridge that divide by turning high-level policy into practical, scalable solutions.
By combining AfricaNenda’s technical expertise and regulatory relationships with Equity Group’s massive regional footprint, the alliance plans to deploy functional DPI models across 20 to 30 African markets.
Digital Public Infrastructure functions as the digital equivalent of roads and bridges. Rather than built in isolation, it provides a shared, secure foundation upon which innovators, businesses, and governments can build affordable services.
The strategic partnership will focus heavily on several core pillars:
- Interoperable Payment Systems: Eliminating barriers between different banks, mobile networks, and digital wallets.
- Cross-Border Ecosystems: Streamlining regional trade by lowering the cost and complexity of cross-border transactions.
- Government & Merchant Solutions: Modernizing local economies through efficient, digitized local merchant and state payment networks.
- Policy & Regulatory Engagement: Partnering with central banks to establish trusted digital identities and secure data exchange.
By lowering the barrier to entry, a robust DPI ecosystem will empower young African entrepreneurs to build scalable apps, secure regional market access, and drive job creation. Furthermore, seamless digital connectivity will serve as a crucial backbone for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
As the newly minted Continental DPI Champion, Dr. James Mwangi received a symbolic plaque recognizing his decades of leadership in inclusive finance. Accepting the appointment, Dr. Mwangi clarified that the initiative is intended to support, not supplant, national governance.
“We are not asking governments to surrender ownership of public infrastructure,” Dr. Mwangi stated. “Instead, we are demonstrating how the private sector can partner with governments to accelerate the implementation of critical digital infrastructure such as digital identity and interoperable digital payments. Infrastructure alone is not enough; its value comes from the solutions innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses build on top of it.”
For the Gates Foundation, which is actively supporting the initiative, the partnership is more about human outcomes. Nanjira Sambuli, Senior Advocacy Officer for Africa at the Gates Foundation, noted that the ultimate benchmark of success is lifestyle transformation. “At the Gates Foundation, we believe building Digital Public Infrastructure is only a first step. The real measure of success is whether people use it to improve their lives,” she said.
This initiative integrates with Equity Group’s broader Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan (ARRP), which champions economic value-addition across vital sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, and logistics.
The move builds on Dr. Mwangi’s recent economic advocacy at the Africa Forward Summit. His push for high-value African exports recently culminated in the successful launch of Kenyan Purple Tea in Paris, marking a transition from raw commodity exporting to premium, branded global trade.