Nigerian Fintech Nearpays Becomes First African Startup to Win UN AI for Good Innovation Factory
Quick Reads:
- Nearpays won the grand finale of the AI for Good Innovation Factory, part of the UN’s AI for Good Global Summit
- The Nigerian fintech beat more than 500 startups worldwide to become the first African winner
- Its path to victory ran through Johannesburg regionals to the global finals in Geneva
- Nearpays runs SoftPOS, an AI-powered app that turns Android phones into card payment terminals
- The platform works online and offline, built specifically for Africa’s connectivity gaps
Nigerian fintech Nearpays has pulled off a historic win, becoming the first African startup to take the top prize at the UN’s AI for Good Innovation Factory. The company beat out more than 500 startups from across the globe to claim the grand finale title, a first for the continent in the competition’s history.
The AI for Good Innovation Factory runs as part of the United Nations’ AI for Good Global Summit, an initiative organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) alongside several UN agencies. The summit brings together governments, researchers, startups, and tech companies to explore how artificial intelligence can be applied to real development challenges.
Nearpays’ journey to the win started in Johannesburg, where it topped the African regional round before advancing to the global finals in Geneva. From there, the fintech pushed through the semi-finals and went on to win the grand finale outright, a moment it describes as bigger than a corporate achievement. For Nearpays, the win is proof that African-built technology can compete, and win, on the global stage.
The company was founded to fix a persistent problem in African payments: small and medium businesses that simply can’t afford or access traditional POS terminals. Cost, availability, and deployment issues have long shut merchants out of digital payments, especially in rural and underserved areas.
Nearpays’ answer is SoftPOS, an AI-powered platform that converts compatible Android smartphones into full payment acceptance devices. Merchants can accept contactless card payments with nothing but their phone, while AI runs quietly in the background handling payment processing, compliance, fraud detection, and business operations. Notably, the platform was designed with African infrastructure realities in mind, working both online and offline so merchants stay in business even without a stable internet connection.
Nearpays credited its team’s years of product development and customer engagement for the win, and thanked the UN, ITU, and the AI for Good initiative for creating a platform where innovators can put AI to work on real-world problems. The company also said it hopes the victory pushes more African founders to build solutions that serve local needs while still competing globally.
With the UN title now secured, Nearpays says the win marks the start of a new chapter as it continues expanding digital financial infrastructure across Africa.
