Inauguration Africa Digital Asset Summit Concluding in Nairobi, Kenya on 30 April, organizers declared it a “resounding success”, while the event’s keynote speaker issued a stark warning: rapid advances in digital systems risk rendering the continent’s poorest citizens “invisible”.
Organizers of the summit said their aim was to “bring together investors, regulators, innovators and policymakers to accelerate Africa’s digital economy from policy to prosperity.”
ACI Africa, EWTN News’ sister service in Africa, The summit was first reported in February and said Kenya is preparing to host the summit Catholic University of East Africa (CUEA) with the objective of examining “How digital innovation can serve humanity” under the theme “Ethical Management for the Love of the Poor”.
Eddie Cullen, one of the summit organizers, said he took inspiration from Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation on love for the poor. delexy teA copy of which all the participants received.
Cullen, CEO Crescite Innovation Corporationwhich sponsored the event, called it “a resounding success”.
Archbishop Bert Van Megen, former Papal Ambassador to Kenya, delivered the keynote address titled “The Interrelationship of Faith, Ethics and Technological Development: Toward Ethical Management in the Service of the Poor.”
Cresight Innovation CEO Eddie Cullen, left, and Archbishop Bert van Megen at the Africa Digital Assets Summit in Nairobi, Kenya on April 29-30, 2026. Credit: Crescite Innovation Corporation
Van Megen frames technological development as an ethical question with direct implications for vulnerable communities, warning that modern financial and technological infrastructures, while promising inclusion, may instead sideline vulnerable populations if not designed with them in mind.
“Artificial intelligence, fintech ecosystems and digital identity infrastructure are not just tools; they are increasingly becoming governance systems,” he said, “they determine access to credit, health care, mobility and even citizenship.”
He stated that “In previous eras, exclusion was visible. Today, it is increasingly codified.”
Dutch-born archbishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV as the new Apostolic Nuncio to Germany on 9th AprilCautioned that digital systems presented as neutral or efficient could silently exclude those who lack stable digital records or formal participation in financial systems.
“The danger is not just that technology may fail the poor,” he said. “The deeper danger is that it could systematically exclude them, despite appearing neutral, efficient and even progressive.”
drawing from delexy teVan Megen said that Christian love should become the standard by which technological systems are evaluated.
“If this is true, then love is not one of many values,” he said, referring to the opening words of the apostolic exhortation: “I have loved you.”
“This is the criteria against which all systems, including technical ones, should be evaluated,” he said.
He warned that societies that focus on speed and adaptation often marginalize vulnerable populations.
“In a world driven by speed, scale and efficiency, it becomes structurally inconvenient to pay attention to the poor,” the Vatican diplomat said. “We must ask: Are we creating systems that can still take into account vulnerable people?”
He said the poor are at increasing risk of becoming “statistically invisible” in modern digital systems.
“Modern technological systems operate through abstraction,” he said. “They convert individuals into data points, profiles and prospects.”
Archbishop Bert van Megen with participants at the inaugural African Digital Assets Summit in Nairobi on April 29-30, 2026. Credit: Massimo Di Giovanna/MD Photo LLC
According to the Archbishop, many economically disadvantaged people lack “stable digital identities,” “formal financial histories,” and “continuous data trails,” making it difficult for algorithmic systems to process them.
He is quoted as saying, “The poor are the privileged recipients of the gospel.” dilexi te, Warning that they risk being “present in life, but absent in decision-making data”.
“This is not mere exclusion; it is invisibility by design,” said the Apostolic Nuncio.
Using examples of AI-powered credit systems and fintech ecosystems operating across Africa, he explained how algorithmic systems can interpret poverty as a financial liability.
“Irregular income becomes ‘risk’; informal economies become ‘instability’; community-based sharing becomes ‘ownership deficit’,” he said.
“The poor are not explicitly excluded…they are silently screened out,” he said.
Calling technology ‘neutral’ is ‘false’
The archbishop also challenged the widely repeated claim that technology is neutral.
“We often hear that technology is neutral. While this is convenient, it is equally wrong,” he said.
“Technology is never a passive tool,” he said, adding: “Every system is shaped by human decisions about what to measure, what to prioritize, what to optimize, and what to ignore.”
Citing Pope Benedict XVI’s June 2009 encyclical on integral human development in charity and truth, Caritas in VeritateHe said: “Technology is never just technology. It reveals man and his aspirations.”
He also warned that technology could “provide effective dominance to those with knowledge and economic resources.”
“When access to essential goods, credit, health care, and education is done through digital systems, control over those systems becomes a form of social power,” Van Megen said, adding, “If that power is concentrated, inequality is not only preserved, but it increases.”
‘Structural ethics’ should shape the design of digital systems
The Vatican envoy argued for what he called “structural ethics”, saying that moral responsibility should shape the design of the system itself.
He said, “Ethics today must move from individual virtue to system design.”
They proposed that technological systems prioritize vulnerable users, preserve non-digital alternatives, create accountability structures, and accept exceptions where justice requires flexibility.
“The system should not be designed for the most efficient or profitable users but for those who are most vulnerable,” Van Megen said.
He linked those principles to Catholic social teaching, including “the dignity of the human person, the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity”.
Catholics called to ‘shape ethical framework for emerging technology’
Vatican diplomat urges Catholics to play a more active role in shaping emerging technologies.
He said, “The Church must do more than criticize. It must also offer proposals.” “It is called to shape the ethical framework for emerging technologies; advocating for policies that protect the most vulnerable; producing leaders capable of integrating trust, ethics, and innovation; providing a vision of development rooted not in dominance but in dignity.”
Van Megen said that technological progress cannot be separated from moral responsibility.
“We are not just creating technologies,” he said. “We are building the moral architecture of the future – the conditions under which human life will flourish or fail.”
For him, “The question is not whether technology will shape the future. It will.”
“The question is: Will it recognize the poor or make them invisible?” Van Megen said, and confirmed: “The answer will not be found in code alone. It will be found in conscience.”
Cullen said he hopes to expand faith-driven tech initiatives delexy te For more projects in Africa.”
“We look forward to continuing to spread the love of Christ across the continent,” Cullen said.
this was the story first published Produced by ACI Africa, EWTN News’ sister service in Africa, and adapted by EWTN News English.
