Fintech: 21 start-ups from nine African countries selected for Visa accelerator, Niger and Togo join

Twenty-one financial start-ups from nine African countries have been selected for the sixth cohort of the Africa Fintech Accelerator, the support program launched by Visa in 2023. The selection was made public from Accra, Ghana, on October 2, 2026, according to FollowICT. Notably, Niger, Togo, and the Seychelles are represented for the first time.

The themes selected this year cover the most concrete challenges on the continent: payments, money transfers, stablecoin-backed tokens, and sustainable finance, according to FollowICT. The cost of money transfers to and within Africa remains among the highest in the world, and several of the supported companies are working specifically on this expense, which drains the income of families and small merchants.

Beyond the four usual hubs

The entry of start-ups from Niger, Togo, and the Seychelles is the most interesting signal from this cohort. The African financial ecosystem is most often summarized by four markets—Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa—which account for the bulk of fundraising. The distribution of this cohort serves as a reminder that talent also exists in the landlocked countries of the Sahel, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, and in small island states, far from the spotlight.

One hundred and four start-ups in three years

Before this cohort, the program had supported 104 start-ups across five cohorts since 2023, with a cumulative valuation of $1.4 billion and operations deployed in 28 African markets, reports Tech In Africa. The fifth cohort brought together companies from ten countries, and eighteen of them presented their products during the final demo day.

Among the program's alumni, the platform Credable works on digital credit, Kredete has launched stablecoin-backed cards, and MoneyHash has secured a multi-year contract for the Middle East and North Africa region, details Tech In Africa. Godfrey Sullivan, Head of Product and Solutions for Visa in the CEMEA region, believes that collaboration between founders and industry players can "expand financial access," according to the same source.

What to watch

The mechanism remains that of an American payments giant, which gains privileged access to a pool of entrepreneurs and their technologies. The challenge for African ecosystems is for these start-ups to retain their capital, their data, and their local roots once the support program ends. The demo day that concludes the program will reveal which projects have convinced investors and how many will remain owned from within the continent.