Embrace Mentorship To Fast-Track Africa’s Digital Skills Revolution

Africa has already proved the world wrong. We did not just join the digital payment race; we set the pace for mobile money and financial inclusion. But let’s be real. Having the best infrastructure and apps is not enough anymore. The “next big thing” in tech is not an algorithm, it’s people.

The next wave of the digital revolution depends on your skills, your leadership, and frankly our willingness to stop gatekeeping knowledge and start sharing it.

We have all heard the “study STEM” lecture. That we need more younger people to take up skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, and these same courses are continuing to evolve, driven by the emergence of new fields, automation and robotics, and big data. But we know the game is changing faster than a university syllabus can keep up.

Between AI, robotics and big data, the workplace has evolved. It’s no longer just about knowing how to code; it’s about solving real-world problems. This is where the gap lies, and it’s where mentorship changes everything and plays an important role.

To fast-track Africa’s digital skills revolution, mentorship must move from being an informal practice to a strategic imperative within the digital payments sector.  Within companies like Network International, ( Network ), there is a massive amount of “secret sauce” knowledge, things like how to fight fraud, how to navigate messy regulations, or how to build a product that people trust.

When that knowledge stays locked in an older executive’s office, we all lose. We want to open those doors on mentorship and incubation programs where experienced experts within organisations can shape new and upcoming talent.

Mentorship is the bridge that takes you from “I learned this in a textbook” to “I’m actually building the AI that secures a million transactions.”

Let’s get one thing straight: mentorship is not a one-way street where an “expert” talks at you.  It’s reciprocal. While established players have the scale and the “lessons learned,” you bring the agility, the fresh eyes, and the intuitive understanding of where the world is heading.

In fields like medicine or energy, people share safety protocols because it makes the   whole world safer. Fintech should be the same. We can compete on who has the coolest app, but we should collaborate on things like cybersecurity and ethics. When we mentor each other across the   industry, from the biggest banks to the newest startups, we build a system that  won’t  break.

Beyond individual firms, industry players also have a responsibility to mentor across the ecosystem. Established payment service providers, banks and card networks can support fintech’s and start-ups by sharing lessons on scaling securely, navigating regulation and building resilient systems. This kind of peer mentorship reduces costly trial-and-error, raises industry standards and promotes responsible innovation.

For the senior leaders reading this: our legacy isn’t our profit.  It’s how much time we invested in the people coming up behind us.

And for the mentees and Gen Z innovators: the door is opening. As Kenya and the rest of Africa push toward a digital future, we must ask a simple question: are we just building products, or are we building people? Because the tech is only as good as the humans behind it. Let’s build both.

The writer is the Regional Managing Director, Acquiring at Network International