Browsing: Banking

Africa's financial inclusion

The role of technology in raising Africa’s financial inclusion

Tech & Business

Currently, financial inclusion is a target that all African countries must achieve. Boosting Africa's financial inclusion will have a positive impact on economic growth and the prosperity of society. Through financial inclusion, everyone has access to a variety of quality, effective, and efficient financial services. Increasing public accessibility to financial service products will further reduce the level of economic and social inequality which in turn will improve the welfare of the community.

One of the efforts to achieve this financial inclusion target is through technology in the form of digital finance. When financial products and services use internet technology, it makes it easier for people to directly access various kinds of payments, shopping, savings, and investments, including loan and credit facilities. Among these digital financial elements, the payment facility is the service that is experiencing the fastest development and contributes greatly to the achievement of Africa's financial inclusion targets.…

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Africa's financial literacy deficit

Africa’s financial literacy deficit: bridging the gap for economic empowerment

Economic Growth

Financial knowledge remains paramount in an era in which increasingly complex financial products have become readily available to many. Governments in different countries have put more effort into expanding access to financial services. Consequently, the number of individuals with bank accounts and access to credit products is increasing.

Financial literacy remains crucial to personal and economic empowerment, enabling people to make sound financial choices and manage their finances effectively. Africa suffers from a significant shortage of financial literacy, which hinders its economic growth and development.…

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Faulu bank

Kenya’s Faulu Bank turns digital to bolster market share

Banking
  • Faulu Bank, a microfinance firm in Kenya, unveils a digital platform for real time cash transfer between banks and their clients.  
  • It complements its recent innovations such as the Faulu DigiCash App, and the tap-and-pay digital cards.
  • The bank has so far invested over $1.42 million in digitizing services. 

Kenya’s Faulu Bank has unveiled a new banking solution offering large enterprises and corporations seamless, real-time, and cost-effective transfers between banks and their corporate clients.

The solution is one of the digital offerings Faulu Bank is rolling out this year as it turns into a digital-first lender.

Faulu Bank’s DigiCash App

It complements its recent innovations such as the Faulu DigiCash App, and the tap-and-pay digital cards that allow users to transact on the go.

With the introduction of the Host-to-Host solution, Faulu Bank has so far invested over $1.42 million in digitizing services.

Speaking during the official launch of the …

Kenya QR Code standard

Kenya QR code standard to streamline digital payments

Kenya
  • New standard to guide how Payment Service Providers and institutions regulated by the CBK issue quick response (QR) codes.
  • Merchants will be able to receive payments from multiple channels such as banks or mobile wallets.
  • CBK says long-term use of standardized QR codes will facilitate the launch of innovative products.

Consumers in Kenya can now make digital payments in an easy, fast, and convenient way through quick response codes. This week, the Central Bank issued the Kenya Quick Response Code Standard 2023, also shortened as KE-QR Code Standard 2023. 

The service seeks to boost digital payments, which are offered by multiple financial institutions in the country. Normally, many companies use in-house payments solutions meaning customers can only use vendor-specific channels. Kenya’s financial industry regulator now wants to eliminate that friction through deployment of the new standard.

The regulator said the standard will guide how Payment Service Providers and institutions …

ZB Financial Holdings mulls shutting down home loan unit

ZB Financial Holdings mulls shutting down home loan unit

Investing

As his banking operation grew Vingirai became the target of what has been called deliberate skullduggery against successful businesspeople in Zimbabwe. In 2004 after the banking crisis that claimed the scalps of most of the indigenous banks in Zimbabwe Nicholas Vingirai had to leave the country and spent seven years in self-imposed exile after he was charged with contravening the country’s exchange control laws.

He was absolved in 2011 of the charges of externalization of foreign currency however, the government had expropriated his firm Intermarket Holdings in 2006. Since that time Vingirai has been on a crusade to recover his assets which are now in the centre of the dispute. ZB Financial Holdings comprises of assets that belong to Transnational Holdings Limited. For the assets that were annexed from Vingirai, the government duly transferred 22.7% of the shares in ZB Financial Holdings to the veteran banker.

More shares are due …

Banking in Africa- A case of resilience

Banking in Africa- A case of resilience

Business

Banks in Africa generally and in South Africa especially weathered the perfect storm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is testament to their resilience and confirms the findings of a study that was commissioned in 2015 by the African Development Bank titled, “The Banking System in Africa: Main Facts and Challenges”. The report found that while Africa’s banking environment is relatively shallow and less penetrated, it is as competitive as that in other developing and high-income regions.

  • Banks in Africa showed their resilience when they weathered the existential threat and headwinds brought on by COVID.
  • Banking in Africa is significantly ahead if the rest f the world according to the AFDB in terms of the penetration and adoption of mobile banking.
  • Banks in South Africa especially have been making money as the economy shed off its last vestiges of COVID controls.

The continent has made improvements in banking technology and…

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Role of banks in Enabling AfCFTA

The role of banks in enabling AfCFTA

Industry and Trade

AfCFTA will be a game changer for Africa, but its success depends on certain enablers being present. The first and most obvious impediment and an obstacle to the initiative will be mustering the political will of the signatories to implement the necessary reforms to enable its success.  This may not always be politically feasible or possible.

The less obvious enablers and the financial institutions on the African continent. Their presence and activities have a direct and strong bearing on the success of AfCFTA. One of the foremost bankers on the African continent, Sim Tshabalala, the chief executive of the continent’s largest banking institution by assets, is fond of saying that banking is a derived business. This means that banks butter their bread from the activities of economic agents.

If AfCFTA is to succeed in its quest to merge the various comparative advantages of the countries that constitute Africa it will…

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Banking Industry in South Africa Primed for Growth in 2022 PWC

Banking industry in South Africa set for growth: PWC

South Africa
  • Banking industry in South Africa staged a strong come back in 2021 in report by PWC.
  • Banks enjoyed supportive credit conditions in the economy of South Africa.
  • Banking industry is widely seen as a proxy of the general economy in South Africa
  • South African economy has returned to pre-pandemic levels as evidenced by the financial performance of banks according to PWC

The banking industry in South Africa is in for good times according to a report by PWC. The banking industry sector analysis and report by the global management consulting firm published in March 2022 reports that the major South African banks delivered strong financial performance against what PWC described as “supportive conditions”.

The banking industry had combined headline earnings of ZAR 86.8 billion which represented a 99% increase from 2020 financial year levels. Banks had a combined return on equity (ROE) of 15.9% compared to 8.3% achieved in 2020, …

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Zimbabwe: Comedy of errors pushes RBZ to lift suspension on lending by banks

Banking

The president announced in a May 7 televised speech that banks had been banned from lending in a bid to stem the precipitous decline of the local currency inter alia increasing capital holding tax, banning third party transactions on the local bourse, and increasing Intermediated Money Transfer Tax (IMTT).

The move came as the local currency had been depreciated against the United States dollar. This is amid high demand for the greenback which is seen as a store of value.

An executive at an agro-processing firm, name with-held, told NewZimbabwe that his company can’t borrow what it needs to pay 500 farmers for the soy and sugar beans. It contracted them to grow, or fund the purchase of inputs such as fertilizer for the next season’s crop.…

Zimbabwe: Best sectors to invest in into the next decade

Investing

A report published by Lexology on January 18, 2022, Zimbabwe's economy is largely driven by the mining, agriculture, and tourism sectors. However, because of Zimbabwe's foreign currency shortages, there is a significant focus on export-oriented and foreign currency-generating activities.

This allows investors, businesses, and the government to retain value and meet the country's forex needs. Zimbabwe's main exports are minerals, agricultural produce, and soft commodities. She also has large reserves of chromite, coal, gold, and iron ore, among others. The country is also one of the world's largest growers of tobacco.

According to research by Mordor Intelligence, Zimbabwe is a signatory of several bilateral and international agreements (MIGA, OPIC, ICSID, and UNCITRAL) that protect the investments of the companies in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has cheap educated, and competitive labour, well-developed infrastructure, and easy access to regional and global markets through its membership in AU, COMESA, SADC, COPAC, and CISSA. Zimbabwe offers…

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