| Data & Financial Inclusion |    2604 VIEWS  |
| Data & Financial Inclusion | |
| 2604 VIEWS | |
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Thursday, June 13, 2019 / 2:45PM / AfDB / Header Image Credit: AfDB
The
African Development Bank and its partners on Wednesday launched the Africa
Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), designed to aid safety and
expansion of digital financial transactions in Africa.
The Fund, launched at the Bank’s
Annual Meetings in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, is supported by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the
Government of Luxembourg, as initial contributors.
The goal is to ensure that at
least 320 million more Africans, of which nearly 60% are women, have
access to digital financial services. The fund will deploy $100 million in
grants and $300 million in the form of debt from the Bank’s ordinary capital
resources by 2030, to scale up electronic financial services for low-income
communities.
“We believe that with the right
investments in innovation and smart digital growth, the obstacles to achieving
financial inclusion and greater economic opportunity for all will be overcome,”
African Development Bank President Akinwunmi Adesina said.
The interventions will be
aligned to four pillars; infrastructure, including digital and interoperable
payment systems; digital products and innovation; policy and regulatory reform
and harmonisation; and capacity building. It will help to close the transaction
gender gap between men and women.
Africa saw double-digit growth
in mobile phone ownership in the first half of this decade, triggering a surge
in innovative digital tools and services across the continent. Yet, the
benefits are not shared equally. It is estimated that only 43% of adults across
Africa have a banking account.
“Financial inclusion, achieved
through digital financial service models, is simultaneously a powerful
anti-poverty strategy and a catalyst of sustainable economic development for
national and regional economies,” said Michael Wiegand, Director of the
Financial Services for the Poor Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
ADFI’s opening project, which
serves as a pilot for the facility, is a $11.3 million grant from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation to the Bank and the Central Bank of West African
States. The grant will create an interoperable digital payment system that will
allow consumers to send and receive money between mobile wallets, and from
these wallets to other digital and bank accounts.
“With ADFI, we are convinced
that our joint efforts can contribute efficiently to bring down the barriers
that still undermine the full potential of digital finance in Africa. It will
enhance the delivery of quality and responsible digital financial services to
the underserved, a cornerstone to inclusive and sustainable financial systems.
AFD welcomes the specific attention that will be given to women’s digital
financial inclusion in the evaluation of the projects to be supported,” said Sébastien Minot,
AFD’s Deputy Head for Africa.
The ADFI will work with banks
and non-bank financial institutions, mobile network operators, remittance and
payment service providers, fintech companies, government ministries, regulatory
bodies as well as regional economic organizations.
“Luxembourg believes that
poverty reduction and social cohesion go hand-in-hand with economic empowerment
and financial inclusion. ADFI provides an excellent platform for Luxembourg to
combine its focus on economic inclusion with its Fintech orientation for the
benefit of Africa’s poor,” said Georges Heine, Alternate Governor for the
African Development Bank from the Luxembourg Ministry of Finance.
A three-member panel including
Bank Vice President Pierre Guislain, Private Sector, Infrastructure and
Industrialization, discussed modalities, expected challenges and policy
requirements that must be in place to enable the fund achieve its goals.
Other members were Vanessa Moungar, Bank Director of Gender, Women and Civil Society, and Konstantin Peric, deputy Director, Financial Services for the Poor at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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