Africa’s Fintech Boom Is Here. The Talent to Drive It? Still Catching Up.

Nkebet Mesele

Africa’s fintech sector is surging. From January to July 2025 alone, startups raised over $1.1 billion led by digital banks, cross-border payment networks, and B2B infrastructure platforms. A broader 12-month view between June 2024 and June 2025 shows that fintechs across the continent raised $2.5 billion. But while capital continues to flow, the sector is short on something just as critical: skilled people.

Across the ecosystem, fintech founders are increasingly vocal about the difficulty of hiring and retaining experienced talent. Roles in product management, compliance, engineering, and fraud risk are especially hard to fill. For many companies, the talent gap has become a more pressing constraint than capital.

The reasons are layered. Most universities across Africa aren’t producing fintech-ready graduates. Boot camps are emerging but operate on too small a scale. Meanwhile, global companies are hiring African tech talent remotely, offering pay packages local startups can’t match. The result: a growing digital brain drain.

This gap goes beyond hiring. It weakens the foundations that fintech needs to grow. Without experienced teams, platforms become more vulnerable; technical issues take longer to resolve, product launches are delayed, and regulatory processes become more challenging to navigate. The impact trickles down quickly. It shows up in missed remittances, stalled wallet transactions, and small businesses locked out of their income.

And behind each of those moments is a person. A mother trying to send school fees to her family. A market vendor waiting for digital payments that never clear. A young graduate eager to join the digital economy, but with no clear path. These are the quiet consequences of a talent pipeline that isn’t keeping pace with innovation.

Some companies are responding. A few fintechs in Nigeria are investing in training programs to build mid-level talent. Others in Kenya and South Africa are experimenting with internal academies and mentorship tracks. A few are creating hybrid teams, blending diaspora leadership with local execution. But these are exceptions, not the norm.

Public-private initiatives are also starting to emerge, aiming to bridge the education gap through targeted upskilling. Still, they remain early-stage and fragmented across markets.

The implications are clear. Without a reliable pipeline of fintech-savvy professionals, Africa risks building an ecosystem that relies too heavily on external contractors or expat talent. That model may work in the short term, but it won’t hold.

This challenge is solvable, but only if we treat talent as infrastructure. Founders can and should lead by building learning into the product of their companies. Investors can back startups where human capital matters as much as growth metrics. Governments can expand their digital agendas to include career pathways, not just access.

The truth is there’s no shortage of capital. The innovation is here. But fintech runs on infrastructure, and infrastructure runs on people. If Africa’s payment revolution is to last, it must invest just as boldly in growing talent as it does in deploying capital.