The Pan-African fintech completed a 12-week intensive program, reinforcing its position at the intersection of blockchain infrastructure and continental financial transformation
As African fintech matures beyond mobile money into sophisticated financial infrastructure, a new category of companies is emerging to address the continent’s most persistent economic challenges. Shiga Digital (Shiga), the blockchain-based banking platform, has completed the Visa Accelerator Program – Africa (Cohort 4), marking another milestone in its mission to fundamentally reimagine how enterprises and individuals across Africa access, move, and grow capital.
The 12-week intensive program, which convened 22 fintech startups from 12 African countries, began with an onboarding week at Norrsken House in Kigali, Rwanda, and culminated in Demo Day in Cape Town, South Africa, organized in partnership with Plug and Play. The cohort engaged with government representatives, global financial institutions, and ecosystem enablers throughout the program, a convergence that reflects the increasing institutional appetite for blockchain-native financial solutions.
For Shiga, the accelerator experience represents more than program completion. It signals institutional recognition of a fundamental thesis: that blockchain technology is not merely an enhancement to existing banking systems but a replacement architecture capable of solving challenges that legacy infrastructure cannot address.
“Traditional banking was never designed for Africa’s economic realities,” said Abiola Shogbeni. “Cross-border complexity, currency volatility, and fragmented payment rails create friction that costs businesses billions annually. We built Shiga to eliminate that friction entirely.”
Shiga’s approach is distinctive. Rather than building applications atop conventional banking infrastructure, Shiga has constructed a blockchain-native core where stablecoin wallets function as primary bank accounts. This architecture delivers three foundational capabilities: deep liquidity through stablecoin integration, seamless payment execution across borders, and democratized access to real-world assets previously reserved for institutional players.
The continental opportunity
Africa’s fintech sector has attracted substantial global investment, yet much of that capital has flowed toward digitizing existing financial models rather than rebuilding them. Shiga occupies a different position, one focused on infrastructure that enables entirely new categories of financial participation.
The enterprise implications are significant. Businesses operating across African markets face currency conversion costs, settlement delays, and liquidity constraints that erode margins and limit growth. Shiga’s infrastructure addresses these challenges at the protocol level, offering enterprises a competitive advantage through reduced transaction costs and accelerated capital flows.
For individuals, the platform represents access. Stablecoin-based accounts provide protection against local currency depreciation while enabling participation in global financial markets, capabilities that traditional banks have historically reserved for high-net-worth clients.
Positioning for scale
The Visa Accelerator experience has sharpened Shiga’s go-to-market approach while expanding its network across African financial ecosystems. The program’s structure—bringing together regulators, corporates, and technology partners, provided a concentrated environment for validating integration pathways and partnership models.
As blockchain adoption accelerates across African financial services, Shiga is positioned to serve as foundational infrastructure for the next generation of fintech applications. The company’s participation in what observers have called one of Africa’s most impressive fintech cohorts reinforces its credibility with institutional investors and enterprise clients alike.
What now?
Shiga’s trajectory reflects a broader shift in African fintech: from financial inclusion as access to financial empowerment as control. Shiga’s blockchain-first architecture represents a bet that the continent’s financial future will be built on new rails entirely and that the builders of those rails will define the next era of African economic development.
For enterprises seeking competitive advantage through financial innovation and investors evaluating Africa’s infrastructure opportunity, Shiga has established itself as a company worth watching.
