Africa Internet Governance Forum 2025

In a time when the internet is no longer just a medium for communication, but a marketplace, a school, a hospital, and a government office—the foundational question becomes: who owns the infrastructure of trust? As Africa builds its digital future, the most crucial architecture is not just bandwidth, but Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)—systems that are open, interoperable, inclusive, and purpose-built for enabling value creation at scale.

This lightning talk shines a spotlight on the nature of open platforms and how they form the backbone of a new African economy. It explores the internet not as a static network, but as a platform of platforms—supporting value exchange, coordination, and innovation. In this evolving digital economy, public digital infrastructure is not just a state obligation, but a shared responsibility of netizens, raising an urgent philosophical question: Who is the African netizen in the blockchain era? What does autonomy look like in a distributed financial future?

Taking Moja Loop and Tanzania’s Instant Payment System (TIPS) as practical case studies, the session explores how digital finance can drive financial inclusion, bypassing the limitations of traditional banking systems. TIPS, operating over active cellular networks and leveraging a unified payment interface, has created a layer of real-time digital trust—giving rise to accessible, scalable, and low-cost payment rails for underserved populations. Through open APIs and interoperable infrastructure, these platforms have turned mobile connectivity into economic agency.

Yet, inclusion is not a guarantee—it is a design choice. The value of the digital economy grows exponentially, but so do its risks, particularly when infrastructure is gated, proprietary, or optimized for exclusion. Without strong public digital infrastructure and universal access, the internet becomes not a highway of value, but a terrain of extraction.

This session builds a powerful case for treating digital finance as a public utility, underpinned by open standards, accountable governance, and citizen-centric design. It touches on:
• How Africa’s digital finance landscape is growing—from peer-to-peer transactions to decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions
• Why interoperability is the key to inclusive economic networks
• The role of DPI in enabling innovation across education, health, taxation, and social protection
• Risks of platform capitalism without public safeguards
• The future of the internet as a civic space that empowers through infrastructure, not just apps
Ultimately, the lightning talk issues a call to action: for Africa to protect and promote the internet as a public good. The infrastructure of trust must be open, sovereign, and rooted in equity—because inclusion is not a byproduct of digital progress; it is the purpose.