16 | FinTech Awards 2026 worked against ordinary people rather than for them.” Now, Umojacoin stands before a pivotal moment. 2026 is the year of the platform’s public launch, and the timing is critical: mobile penetration across Africa is accelerating, regulatory frameworks for digital payments are maturing in key markets, and the appetite among underserved populations for reliable financial tools has never been higher. Umojacoin enters this moment with a clear strategy, a committed team, and a product that is ready. Looking ahead across the next five years, Umojacoin intends to make a measurable impact on the financial struggle that millions of African families navigate every day. Success will be measured in real numbers: people sending money home without losing a painful percentage to fees, small business owners receiving payments digitally for the first time, and families building financial resilience because they finally have the tools to do so. “The broader vision is a financially connected Africa,” Ivan shared, “where the infrastructure of money movement works for ordinary people, not just those who already have access to banks and formal institutions. We believe that vision is achievable within our lifetime, and we believe Umoja has a genuine role to play in making it real. 2026 is where we begin. What comes after is why we started.” Contact: Ivan Braun Company: Umojacoin Web Address: www.umojacoin.com “One Platform. One People. One Continent.” “We built this because it should have existed already.” Translating to “unity” in Swahili, Umojacoin is the pan-African fintech startup behind Umoja Pay, a mobile payments platform purposebuilt for emerging markets across Africa. The company serves individuals and businesses that are either unbanked or underbanked: those who have access to smartphones and economic activity but lack reliable access to formal financial infrastructure. The platform enables digital payments, wallet services, and value transfers through a partner-led distribution model that embeds Umoja Pay into the existing trust networks of local financial service providers, telecommunications companies, and merchants. By removing the need for traditional bank accounts, Umoja Pay empowers people to transact directly, with biometric fingerprint verification that makes onboarding fast and secure, creating a trusted path to inclusion. Umoja Pay users transact using UMC Credits, a stable settlement layer designed to remove exchange volatility from every transaction. After topping up their account using mobile money or an authorised partner, the user’s funds are converted to UMC Credits and held in their balance. Users can then send and receive UMC Credits with anyone else on the platform, instantly, at low cost, and across borders. “Behind every transaction on the Umoja platform is a person: a mother sending school fees, a trader receiving payment, a family member supporting someone back home. We measure our success not just in transaction volumes but in the number of lives that have a little more financial security because Umoja exists.” AIM-Jun26010 Over 500 million adults across Africa lack access to formal financial services. These individuals participate in the economy every day, carry a smartphone, run a business, and support a family, but cannot open a bank account due to inadequate documentation. Umoja Pay is on a mission to reshape financial infrastructure for everyday Africans, offering a mobile-first cross-border payments platform that onboards users with nothing more than a phone and a fingerprint. CEO Ivan Braun told us more below. This empowering infrastructure is matched by customer service that Umojacoin treats as a core product feature rather than a support function. Many of the platform’s users are interacting with formal digital financial services for the first time, and their trust is hard-won and easily lost. The team built its approach to customer service around that reality. “Our users are not sitting at desks with reliable internet,” Ivan told us. “They are on mobile, often on lowend devices, in areas with intermittent connectivity. Excellent client service for Umoja means being reachable through the channels our users actually use: USSD, WhatsApp, inapp support, and our local partner networks. A toll-free number nobody answers is not service.” At its core, Umojacoin represents a new kind of fintech: pan-African by design, not by afterthought. Its structure, strategy, and product decisions are built around the specific realities of the continent — low-bandwidth environments, high mobile penetration, fragmented banking infrastructure, and multi-currency complexity. Every aspect of its operations is designed specifically for African markets. “Umoja is not a company that was built in a boardroom and pointed at Africa,” said Ivan. “It was built from a genuine understanding of what it means to live and operate in markets where the financial system has historically Best Cross-Border Payments & Financial Inclusion Platform 2026 – Africa & Financial Inclusion Excellence Award 2026
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUyMDQwMA==