The Future of African Business Is Built, Not Borrowed
Tech Talk: Rhema's version of a Ted Talk centred around technology and business was the wake-up call that Africa needed to rebuild in this crucial season and set each African country represented on the map. Rev Julian Kyula, the convener of Rhema Feast, set the room thinking about what it really means to build solutions for Africa.
If you are going to solve a problem, the solution is anchored in passion.
Rev Julian Kyula
He reminded the audience that meaningful innovation begins with caring deeply enough about a problem to pursue its solution. Kenya already has evidence of what is possible. The country accounts for roughly a sixth of the world's mobile money movement, a reminder that African innovation does not have to follow the world. It can lead it.
However, Rev Julian challenged the room to think beyond just individual success. When you grow into billion-dollar businesses, you carry a responsibility to lift others. Growth does not mean isolation, it means integration, networking and connection.
The greatest asset we have is people.
Rev Julian Kyula
For Rev Julian, empathy and intuition are essential to solving problems, while the speed of networking can accelerate businesses towards unicorn-level growth far faster than building alone. The mandate, therefore, is not simply to build locally, but to understand value from a global perspective.
He also urged innovators to understand their times and seasons. Outdated laws, policies and mind-sets can become significant barriers to technological progress, and understanding the changing dynamics of impact and policy globally will be critical for anyone building for legacy.
Seyi Ebenezer
Technology, digital finance and the businesses of tomorrow
Speaking at the Rhema Feast 2026 Tech Talk, Seyi Ebenezer, CEO of Payaza Africa, took the audience through lessons drawn from his own journey in business, from the early days of being underestimated, to building infrastructure capable of processing billions in payments and taking his company onto the global stage.
His story began in banking after university, at a time when an opportunity from Access Bank came with an attractive package; a salary and even a Toyota Corolla GLI 1.8. Yet the journey did not unfold as expected. He chose treasury but was not immediately posted, leaving him in a season of waiting and prayer.
Looking back, that season became part of a much bigger lesson: sometimes the seasons that appear to delay you are preparing you to build differently.
For Seyi, one of the greatest opportunities for Africa lies in building the infrastructure and technology needed to support its own growth. However, technology alone is not enough. He challenged the assumption that technology businesses should be led purely by technologists, arguing that finance professionals have an important role to play in building sustainable technology companies.
Why? Because building a great product is one thing, while building a business that understands capital, profitability, risk and long-term value is another.
He illustrated this through experiences of bringing professionals from seemingly unrelated fields into finance and business leadership. The lesson was that: the future belongs to people who can connect disciplines, not just those who remain confined to one.
Perception, governance and data
What Africa has to build before capital arrives
Africa also has another challenge to overcome: perception. African businesses are often viewed through the lens of risk and suspicion, even when the underlying businesses may be performing remarkably well. Seyi challenged this narrative, pointing to data that can tell a different story. African businesses, he argued, can demonstrate strong repayment behaviour, although access to capital remains affected by how Africa is perceived externally.
This is where governance and character become critical. If African businesses want to attract serious capital and compete on global markets, they must build institutions that inspire trust. Good governance is not merely a compliance exercise. Transparency, accountability and integrity become part of the infrastructure of growth.
And then there is data. In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, data is becoming one of the most valuable resources available. AI cannot learn without data, and Africa has enormous amounts of raw data generated through its people, businesses, transactions and systems.
The question is whether Africa will simply produce that data for others to extract value from, or whether it will build the systems capable of turning its own data into economic power.
That same principle applies to finance. Seyi spoke about the importance of African countries developing stronger credit systems and their own credit ratings rather than remaining overly dependent on external institutions and perceptions to determine their financial worth.
You cannot build a sovereign future while constantly borrowing someone else's measurement of your value.
His own journey offered a glimpse of what is possible. From building infrastructure and technology in Nigeria to processing billions in payments, securing a banking licence in Canada and eventually achieving a NASDAQ listing, the story was not simply about technological success. It was about building something robust enough to stand in global markets.
And perhaps that was the greatest challenge to us as Africans: We must stop thinking only about surviving our problems and start imagining and building the solutions.
Infrastructure. Data. Credit. Technology. Capital. These are not merely business opportunities. They are building blocks for the continent's future. But before Africa can build systems that command global trust, it must build businesses marked by character, competence and good governance.
The future is not waiting somewhere beyond Africa; it is waiting to be built here.
And remember, you cannot build alone.