Experts from across Africa, Europe and the Americas will converge virtually on Tuesday, July 28, for the launch of a new policy report by Bridgforte that seeks to redefine how trust is built and sustained in increasingly digital financial systems.
The report, Trust Architecture in Platform-Led Finance, will be unveiled at a 100-minute virtual event featuring regulators, policymakers, financial institutions, fintech executives, development partners and researchers. The Deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Nomfundo (Fundi) Tshazibana, will deliver the keynote address.
According to a statement from Bridgforte, the organiser, the report examines one of the most pressing governance challenges confronting the financial sector as financial services become faster, more digital and increasingly delivered through interconnected platforms rather than individual institutions.
The framework argues that while financial inclusion has significantly expanded access to financial services, sustaining public confidence has emerged as the defining challenge for the next phase of digital finance.
Founder of Bridgforte and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Aishah Ahmad, said although financial inclusion had transformed millions of lives by expanding access, confidence in digital financial systems remained unfinished business.
“Financial inclusion has transformed millions of lives by expanding access. The unfinished work is confidence. Digital financial systems must now prove themselves worthy of public trust. That is the defining challenge for policymakers, regulators and industry leaders alike,” she added.
The launch will also feature an introduction by Ahmad on the origins of the research, followed by the unveiling of the policy framework and a presentation of the report by Ms. Ladipo.
A panel of industry leaders will discuss the report’s findings from different perspectives across the financial ecosystem. Panelists include Dr. Diane Karusisi, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Kigali; Uzoma Dozie, Founder of Sparkle and former Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank; Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-founder of PiggyVest; and Professor Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor, Executive Director of the Consumer Advocacy and Empowerment Foundation.
The session will be moderated by Prof. Olayinka David-West, Dean of Lagos Business School, while Lehlé Baldé and Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nairametrics, will serve as hosts.
The report is the outcome of nearly a year of research that began during the inaugural Bridgforte Dialogues, held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2025 in collaboration with the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program and ConsumerCentriX.
Discussions at the forum identified trust as the critical issue shaping the future of financial inclusion, prompting further engagement through a closed-door Executive Table convened in Lagos in February 2026 in partnership with the UNDP Nigeria Innovation Centre.
The Lagos meeting brought together 30 senior leaders from banking, fintech, payments infrastructure, insurance, capital markets and development finance, whose deliberations informed a broader programme of independent research and international comparative analysis.
Bridgforte said the report provides a new policy framework to help regulators, financial institutions and industry leaders strengthen governance and build public trust as digital financial ecosystems continue to evolve.
Oluchi Chibuzor
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