Browsing: Africa Fintech Summit

• Today, many Africans struggle to manage their finances, often using up their salaries before they even receive them.
• This struggle is partly due to a failure of financial inclusion, which is a chance for all individuals to access financial tools.
• Financial inclusion is a means of reducing inequality and bridging economic gaps.

Financial inclusion is a concept that transcends economic borders, embodying the idea that access to financial services is a fundamental human right that can empower individuals to build wealth and improve their lives.

While financial inclusion might appear irrelevant to those who seemingly have access to financial tools, it’s imperative to recognize that a significant portion of the global population, particularly in Africa, still faces barriers to formal financial services.

According to the World Bank’s 2021 Global Findex report, up to 38 percent of adults in developing countries remain unbanked.

Financial inclusion means bridging gaps

At its core, …

• Rwanda and Kenya lead E. Africa in the list of most entrepreneurial countries in Africa.
• All other five East African countries do not make Africa’s top 10 list.
• Fintech remains the leader in entrepreneurship  growth in Africa.

Entrepreneurship is growing at a tremendous rate across Africa and is to date the most powerful catalyst for economic growth and creation of employment for youth.

According to the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UN Development Program Ahunna Eziakonwa, digital innovation is the leading enterprise in Africa.

Entrepreneurship, a solution to poverty

The diplomat also recognizes the diversity that Africa’s vastness offers numeurous opportunities but on the other hand creates new challenges to ‘creating universal solutions for issues such as poverty and food security, because each country has its own capacity for innovation.’

“I think one of the flaws in development practice in the past has been taking Africa almost as …

With financial inclusion in mind, governments are taking notice and offering more supportive regulatory frameworks, ever further assuring that the African fintech industry growth rivals that of more mature markets, the likes of Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.

Despite the high potential seen in East Africa, with countries like Kenya standing out, South Africa still commands approximately 40 per cent of the industry revenues.

On the western part of the continent, too, in places like Ghana, growth is at 15 per cent per annum and will only get higher all through 2025. Then you have the larger economies coming in; Nigeria and Egypt are both expected to enjoy annual growth rates of 12 per cent over the same period.

While growth rates at this early stages are higher in less developed East African countries, economies with more mature financial systems and digital infrastructure, the likes of South Africa stand a greater …

Payments have historically been a complex problem for African businesses and the banks serving them.

For this reason, companies need to collaborate with many partners to process the numerous types of payments that customers use. This is necessary since each nation prefers a different group of payment alternatives.

Card payments, an area in which banks perform exceptionally well, have a shallow level of penetration, which presents a challenge for banks considering the size of the population without a bank account and the popularity of mobile money.…

The U.S. Department of State gathered a group of private sector representatives to explore investment and collaborative business opportunities in Ethiopia, during the Global Entrepreneurship Week.

A week was spent by the Partnership Opportunity Delegation (POD) engaging with government leaders, private sector entities and Ethiopian entrepreneurs to understand the challenges and opportunities facing Ethiopian innovators and share expertise on how the country can better provide an enabling environment for tech and startups. The delegation included more than 15 companies representing Japan, United States and Sweden.

Also Read: Awash Bank, USAID to help small Agribusinesses in Ethiopia

The Office of Global Partnerships led the POD in exploring opportunities in various sectors of the Ethiopian economy such as digital connectivity, Fintech, creative industry and startups. From these first-hand engagements, several delegates committed to supporting Ethiopia’s economy in tangible ways through workforce development, social entrepreneurship, startup investment, exploring opportunities for telecom privatization …