ATF 2024: Tavonga Muchuchuti on building fintech in Botswana

The president of the Fintech Association of Botswana, Tavonga Muchuchuti, spoke to Connecting Africa Editor Paula Gilbert at Africa Tech Festival 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa about the fintech ecosystem in Botswana and its prospects for growth.

He discussed the role that the Association plays in shaping fintech policy in the country and the challenges the industry faces, such as a lack of digital skills.

He revealed how difficult it is for startups to get funding in a small market like Botswana and how the association is working to improve regulation and governance frameworks for startups and bigger companies to be more attractive for funding or partnership opportunities.

However, he said that there is an opportunity for innovative fintech solutions to be developed in Botswana and then scaled across the continent to bigger markets.

"We need to understand that a small market like Botswana is not really where the action is going to be. I think we have got to be very realistic about that and as the association we have been very realistic about that. So, in order to maximize [opportunities for fintechs] you need to understand that we are building in Botswana to be able to scale across the rest of the continent," he said.

Muchuchuti spoke about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on Botswana's fintech ecosystem and the opportunity it brings to financially include more locals. However, he cautioned that this must be done with high levels of AI governance and ethics.

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He also advocated for regulatory harmonization for fintech across Africa to help with pan-African compliance and allow local companies to expand regionally.