Over two days in Nairobi, Bitnob sponsored the Africa Tech Summit and organized the Nairobi Stablecoin Conference, positioning Kenya as a stablecoin hub
When Africa's payments and fintech ecosystem comes together, the goal is clear: build the infrastructure that works. February 11th -13th, 2025, marked a defining moment for Bitnob in East Africa. Over two days in Nairobi, we participated in the Africa Tech Summit as Silver Sponsors and sponsored the inaugural Nairobi Stablecoin Conference alongside Tether. These events positioned Kenya as the epicenter of Africa's stablecoin infrastructure conversation.
More than just conference participation, this was Bitnob demonstrating our commitment to building the payment infrastructure that African businesses need, connecting with the ecosystem driving Kenya's financial innovation, and charting the practical path for stablecoin adoption across the continent.
Bitnob at Africa Tech Summit, Nairobi 2026
Over 1,600 people from 64 countries packed the Sarit Expo Centre for the Africa Tech Summit. As Silver Sponsors, we had the opportunity to connect with E-commerce founders, SaaS companies managing payroll, remittance operators, and businesses actively searching for solutions because their current payment systems cost too much and move too slowly.
In his session, our CEO and Co-founder, Bernard Parah, took the stage to present “Hedge” , an enterprise-grade Financial Infrastructure.
Hedge is a non custodial, enterprise-grade financial infrastructure platform that empowers institutions to operate securely across wallets, exchanges, and blockchains.
Hedge does not hold customer funds, it provides a full suite of infrastructure tools that enable organizations to manage their treasury operations, move funds across crypto and fiat rails, access market intelligence, interact with blockchains, and scale their overall financial workflows; without building complex systems from scratch.
Speaking after him in a panel discussion was Damilola Robert, our Growth and Marketing Manager, on “Africa Isn’t Your Beta Test: Why the Continent Is Writing the Crypto Playbook”. The discussion got to the heart of what works here versus what gets imported from Silicon Valley. As Damilola put it: "The most successful crypto platforms in Africa didn't ask, 'How do we bring DeFi here?' They asked, 'How do we fix broken money?'"
That's the difference. African users care about getting paid, storing value, and moving money cheaply. Everything else is noise.
Nairobi Stablecoin Conference: Executive Focus
By day three, the gears were shifted entirely and in a more executive fashion. The Hyatt Regency hosted the inaugural Nairobi Stablecoin Conference, an invitation-only, executive-level forum, focused on the theme: Borderless Money: How Stablecoins Are Rewriting Payments.
Powered by Bitnob and Tether, the conference brought C-suite leaders from banks, fintechs, payment companies, and regulators into one room. Not just for panels about the future of stablecoins, but also practical discussions on implementation.
Our COO, Adewale Osideinde, opened the conference explaining why the event needed to happen. It’s known that Kenya has a VASP framework, and businesses are using stablecoins. However, financial institutions, regulators, and infrastructure providers need to come together to build more openly. In his remarks, he explained that the reliability of stablecoins already speaks for itself, but the conference is to address how it can be implemented at scale.
Our CEO and Co-founder, Bernard Parah, led a workshop session on enterprise-grade stablecoin infrastructure. The technical details businesses need: API integration, compliance requirements, settlement processes, and how to interface between stablecoins and local banking systems. For the companies in the room exploring stablecoin payments, this was a roadmap.
Also in a fireside chat, Cynthia Oguchi, our Head of Legal, discussed risk management trends alongside Philip Adiamah, Chainalysis Regional Manager for Africa. The conversation covered what financial institutions evaluating stablecoin integration actually need to know about compliance frameworks and transaction monitoring.
Throughout the day, sessions tackled the questions that matter: How do banks and fintechs with different risk appetites collaborate on stablecoins? What does VASP licensing actually require? Should Kenya prioritize local currency or USD stablecoins? Where do financial institutions make money with stablecoin infrastructure?
The panel on banks versus fintechs featured leaders from Busha, WapiPay, Tether, Tala, and M-Pesa Africa discussing institutional incentives. The regulation session brought together legal heads from Tether, Tala, and Binance alongside local associations to discuss what VASP compliance means operationally.
By the closing session on adoption roadmaps, the message had moved from conversation to implementation. The framework already exists, and market demand is obvious. What's needed is coordinated execution.
Why It Matters
Bitnob does not wait for traditional financial systems to serve African businesses; we have not waited in years. We build the infrastructure that makes stablecoin payments work today. These two days in Nairobi demonstrated our commitment to making that happen in Kenya.
Kenya represents a critical moment for stablecoin adoption in Africa. What's missing is the infrastructure and coordination to move from pilots to scale.
That's what Bitnob provides. APIs that let developers integrate stablecoin payments without blockchain expertise. Platforms that let businesses send and receive USDT while settling in local currency. Infrastructure that bridges crypto rails and traditional banking systems.
From the broad ecosystem engagement at Africa Tech Summit to the executive-level focus at Nairobi Stablecoin Conference, we connected with businesses seeking solutions, regulators shaping frameworks, and financial institutions evaluating participation. We are committed to providing the infrastructure, convening the stakeholders, and driving the practical conversations that move from theory to implementation.
If you're building in fintech or need stablecoin payment solutions, we've laid the foundation so you won't have to start from scratch. Visit bitnob.com or check out our API documentation.