In the African fintech landscape, many ventures stumble by trying to apply top-down Silicon Valley solutions to bottom-up problems. Davina Bemako, General Manager of MonyPort, is taking a different approach. By embedding her team within the informal economies of the DRC and beyond, she is proving that trust and distribution are just as important as code.
With her, we discuss MonyPort’s unfair advantage, the myth of the technology-first approach, and why compliance is a strategy, as a opposed to a barrier.
MonyPort is tackling cross-border payments in Africa, a space littered with failed attempts. What’s your unfair advantage?
Our unfair advantage is that we didn’t start with technology, we started with the reality on the ground.
At MonyPort, we’re not trying to “fix Africa” or the DRC from a boardroom. We operate inside informal economies, cash ecosystems, and fragmented banking systems every single day, especially in the DRC. Through our work with Trade Cooperative Congo and the Cantine Communautaire project, we’ve built trust at the last mile; with Cooperatives, distributors, and communities that most fintechs never truly reach. So, while others are building for the top of the pyramid, we’re embedded at the foundation. That changes everything, from product design to adoption; with the Congolese people in mind.
With an estimated 350 million unbanked adults on the continent, where does MonyPort draw the line between commercial opportunity and developmental responsibility?
For me, the two are not separate, they have to coexist. If your business model only works when people are excluded, then it’s not sustainable. At MonyPort, financial inclusion is not a CSR angle, it’s the core of our growth strategy.
Through initiatives like Cantine Communautaire, we’re onboarding informal traders into structured financial systems, not just giving them access but teaching them how to operate within it. That’s where the real value is created.
You’ve scaled businesses across the DRC, South Africa and beyond. What’s the one operational reality about doing business in Africa that global investors consistently get wrong?
They underestimate the importance of distribution over technology.
You can have the best platform in the world, but if you don’t understand how goods, cash, and trust move on the ground, you will fail. In markets like the DRC, infrastructure is not just physical, it’s relational. It’s who trusts you, who vouches for you, and how consistently you show up. Africa doesn’t reward speed alone, it rewards presence.
Africa’s regulatory landscape is fragmented; 54 countries, 54 rule books. How do you build a compliant payments business without being paralysed by compliance?
You don’t treat compliance as a barrier; you treat it as a strategy.
We build locally, not regionally first. That means deeply understanding each market’s regulatory environment, infrastructural capabilities and partnering with the right institutions. Then you scale through interoperability, not uniformity. Trying to force one model across 54 countries is where most companies go wrong.
You speak several languages. Beyond communication, how has that shaped the way you read markets and build teams across borders?
Language gives you access to nuance and a better understanding of the people, when you understand people; you understand business.
It allows you to understand not just what people are saying, but how they think, how they negotiate, and what they value. In markets like the DRC, switching between English, French, Lingala and other local contexts is strategic. It builds trust faster, reduces friction, and helps you lead with cultural intelligence, not assumptions.
You’ve held C-suite and GM roles at companies founded outside Africa. Should the continent’s financial infrastructure be owned and governed by Africans, and does it matter?
It matters deeply. Because ownership shapes priorities.
Africa’s financial infrastructure needs to be built by people who understand its complexity, its informal systems, and its long-term potential. That doesn’t mean excluding global partners; collaboration is key. But control, decision-making, and value creation should sit on the continent. Otherwise, we risk building systems that extract more than they empower.
You also run Rebrand WMN, a fashion brand rooted in impact and presence. What has entrepreneurship taught you about leadership that corporate careers never could?
Entrepreneurship teaches you ownership at every level.
There’s no hiding behind structure; every decision reflects your clarity, your discipline, and your resilience. It’s also taught me how to build with intention. Whether it’s fintech or fashion, people don’t just buy products, they connect with your story and vision.
And leadership, at its core, is about carrying that vision consistently, even when things are uncertain.
The African fintech boom attracted record funding in 2021–22, then capital dried up. What do you think separates the companies that survived from those that didn’t?
The ones that survived were solving real problems and not just building for valuation.
When funding is abundant, it can hide weak fundamentals. But when capital tightens, only businesses with good systems, real demand, and operational discipline remain.
In Africa, resilience is not optional. The market forces you to build properly.
As a woman leading in a male-dominated payments industry, what’s one structural change that would accelerate gender equity in African fintech?
Access to capital yes, but more importantly, who controls it.
We need more women in investment committees, decision-making roles, and capital allocation positions. Because representation at the top directly influences which businesses get funded, scaled, and taken seriously.
If you could force every policymaker on the continent to understand one thing about digital payments, what would it be, and why?
That digital payments are not just about technology they are about economic participation.
Every policy decision either expands or restricts access to the economy. If you over-regulate, you slow innovation. If you under-support, you limit adoption. The goal should be to create environments where businesses can formalise, scale, and transact seamlessly because that’s how you unlock real economic growth.
Ultimately, Davina Bemako’s approach challenges the conventional wisdom of the “tech-first” startup. By prioritising relational infrastructure over mere digital platforms, she highlights a critical truth for the continent: technology is the tool, but trust is the currency.
