Nigerian fintech, Nearpays, has emerged the African startup to win the United Nations AI for Good Innovation Factory, beating 500 other competitors. The competition, which is part of the UN’s’ AI for Good Global Summit, drew over 500 startups globally, with each pitching AI solutions aimed at social and economic challenges.
The summit is organised by the UN through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in partnership with several UN agencies, convening governments, researchers, startups, and technology companies around AI’s role in development.
Nearpays’ run to the title started from Johannesburg, South Africa, where it won the African regional competition, before advancing to the global finals in Geneva, Switzerland, where the company progressed through the semi-finals and claimed the grand finale.
The fintech describes the victory as bigger than a corporate milestone, calling it a victory for African innovation and proof that technology built to solve local problems can compete, and win, on the world stage.
Nearpays was founded to close a widening gap in African payments, especially small and medium-scale businesses that can’t afford or access traditional point-ofsale terminals. Cost, availability, and deployment hurdles have kept many merchants — particularly in rural and underserved communities — locked out of digital payments.
Its answer is SoftPOS: an AI-powered platform that turns compatible Android smartphones into payment acceptance devices, letting merchants take contactless card payments with nothing more than their phones.
AI is embedded across the platform, supporting payment processing, compliance, fraud detection, and business operations. Crucially, the platform was built for African infrastructure realities — it works both online and offline, so merchants can keep accepting payments even without internet connectivity.
The company credited its team’s years of product development and customer engagement for the result, and thanked the UN, the ITU, and the AI for Good initiative for building a platform where innovators can apply AI to real-world problems.
It also said it hopes the win encourages more African founders to build technology that answers local needs while competing internationally. For Nearpays, the title closes one chapter and opens another, as the company pushes on with expanding digital financial infrastructure across Africa.
