On 24 April 2025, Commissioner Kristin N. Johnson of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (US CFTC) delivered a powerful speech at the Africa Fintech Summit 2025 in Washington, D.C., calling for deeper international collaboration in artificial intelligence (AI), fintech innovation, and inclusive digital asset development. The Africa Fintech as a platforms for dialogue among entrepreneurs, investors, and regulators, Commissioner Johnson underscored Africa’s unique role as a global hub of fintech creativity, noting the continent’s accelerating influence in reshaping the financial services landscape.
Reflecting on her personal journey from family entrepreneurship to a federal commissioner overseeing derivatives markets with notional values exceeding $730 trillion globally, Johnson highlighted the exponential growth of emerging technologies—including blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and AI—in transforming financial systems. She noted that the US CFTC’s remit is evolving, with courts and Congress signalling an expanding mandate over these technologies as part of broader financial market oversight.
Recognising Africa’s dynamic fintech ecosystem, Commissioner Johnson praised the continent’s top innovators—PalmPay, Flutterwave, Kuda, MTN, Piggvest, and Yoco—as global leaders in inclusive finance. She described her visits to South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, and Ghana, where she directly observed the curiosity, ambition, and technological sophistication that distinguish African fintech entrepreneurs. Many of these firms, Johnson said, are leveraging partnerships with global technology leaders such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services to scale advanced tools like distributed ledger technology and AI in a way that deepens financial inclusion and empowers underserved populations.
Commissioner Johnson identified AI as one of the defining forces shaping fintech’s future. She detailed how AI has already improved medical diagnosis, agricultural sustainability, and financial market efficiency, including applications in algorithmic trading, price prediction, and automated risk management. With global investment in AI projected to reach $97 billion by 2027, she explained, financial services firms are moving rapidly to adopt these tools across advisory, trade execution, compliance, and fraud prevention functions.
Commissioner Johnson warned of inclusion barriers, particularly for emerging market firms and smaller competitors. The high cost of AI infrastructure, dependence on large language models, and need for high-performance computing environments often exclude early-stage or regional players from full participation. She praised recent efforts to reduce these barriers, including Cassava Technologies’ collaboration with Nvidia to build Africa’s first AI factory in South Africa to bridge the digital divide.
At the regulatory level, Johnson outlined the US CFTC’s ongoing dialogue with market participants on the governance of AI in financial services. She reiterated her call for a robust, principles-based regulatory framework that includes safeguards such as explainability, bias mitigation, data controls, and transparency. She also reiterated her advocacy for the formation of an AI Fraud Task Force and interagency regulatory coordination in the United States. These mechanisms, she said, are essential to mitigating systemic risk and consumer harm in AI-enabled markets.
The Commissioner also discussed global standard-setters’ growing focus on these challenges. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have each issued guidance on responsible AI integration, while countries like Singapore have operationalised sandbox frameworks through the Monetary Authority of Singapore to allow fintechs to trial AI-based innovations within safe, controlled regulatory environments. She called for greater harmonisation of global standards, noting that fragmentation poses significant compliance challenges, especially for emerging market innovators.
Citing Kenya’s M-Pesa platform as a model for mobile-first innovation, Johnson emphasised that African firms have proven highly capable of democratising access to finance at scale. M-Pesa, she noted, enables users to store, send, and redeem money via SMS, breaking through historical barriers to financial services for millions. Commissioner Johnson described her meeting with the M-Pesa leadership and officials at the Central Bank of Kenya as emblematic of the kind of cross-border dialogue needed to manage retail participation and protect consumers as markets open.
In her concluding remarks, Commissioner Johnson urged sustained collaboration between African fintech pioneers, African and US regulators, and global capital and technology partners. Such cooperation, she argued, is critical to advancing responsible innovation, protecting consumers, and building a more inclusive and resilient global financial system. The Africa Fintech Summit, she said, offers not just a venue for conversation, but a launchpad for collective action.
(Source: https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opajohnson18)
