Grace Ashiru
The African Development Bank and AFRICA Fintech Network have signed a partnership agreement for a $525,000 grant to set up the Africa Fintech Hub (www.AfricaFintechNetwork.com).
This online portal will be a one-stop shop for all fintech activities in Africa.
The Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) will give the Africa Fintech Network money and technical help so it can host and run the African Fintech Hub. The Hub is a digital platform that will allow fintech associations across Africa to share resources and information, improve relationships and partnerships, and show off the work of fintech on the continent, including companies that are led or owned by women.
The African Fintech Hub will be run by a strategic partnership between AFN and the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (Cenfri). Cenfri will provide technical support for the Hub’s growth and promote research, knowledge creation, and other innovative projects.
Director General of the Nigeria Country Department of the African Development Bank, Lamin Barrow, emphasized how important it was for the Bank to support the project. He said it would help strengthen the fintech ecosystem in Africa, make the continent more competitive in the digital world, and build partnerships.
At the African Development Bank, we know we have a big part to play in making the continent’s fintech environment strong, efficient, and long-lasting. We are speeding up the delivery of our top five strategic goals by using several new ideas.
These have helped make it easier for people to use digital infrastructure, such as ICT connections to remote countries and broadband internet services. Even more important is the need to jump over barriers and scale up digital financial solutions that everyone can use. This will help Africa’s economy become more resilient.
The African Development Bank and its partners set up the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility to support innovative ideas like the Africa Fintech Hub Project, which aims to give more Africans access to and use digital financial solutions to meet their needs.
The President of Africa Fintech Network, Dr. Segun Aina, praised the Bank for backing the project.
“We are thrilled to be working with the African Development Bank and Cenfri on multiple fintech projects across Africa to advance our shared goals of “driving Africa-led fintech solutions; encouraging information exchange, ideation, and support; and promoting innovative technologies in the financial services sector in Africa and beyond.”
ADFI Coordinator Sheila Okiro said the Bank is happy to work with the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility to “support this project to strengthen the fintech sector.” This is part of the Bank’s efforts to use technology to help close the gap in financial inclusion and create jobs across Africa.
Projects backed by ADFI are currently building payment systems and infrastructure in Ethiopia and the ECOWAS area to improve digital financial infrastructure and regional interoperability. In other projects, officials in the financial sector in Ghana, Rwanda, and Zambia are given new technology to help protect consumers.
The Facility is also helping projects to make it easier for smallholder farmers in Nigeria, Zambia, and Kenya to get digital micro-insurance. It also helps build cyber-resilience and remove barriers that make it hard for people in the area to use fintech services.
Even though fintechs have a lot of promise to help people in Africa access digital financial services, the African fintech sector is far behind those in Latin America and South-East Asia.
In 2019, AFN and Cenfri did a poll that showed the need to set up and coordinate local fintech chapters, recruit new members, highlight members’ successes, connect them to market access and investment opportunities, and advocate for members to local and regional regulators.
According to the poll, women own less than 15% of fintech companies. AFN will design and apply gender indicators and lenses as a major component of project implementation based on the survey results.
