geo/africa
The Responsible Finance Forum will host the Ninth Annual Responsible Finance Forum: Investing in Responsible Finance and Innovation for Africa’s Digital Economies on Oct. 2 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The event will highlight Africa’s developing digital landscape, analyze challenges the country faces, and investments into responsible digital financial services.
IFC and Mastercard have launched a research report providing insight into the case for Digital Financial Services (DFS) and financial projections from nine microfinance institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The four-year study includes a set of best practice financial modeling benchmarks that can be used as a valuable guide for financial institutions implementing DFS.
The report defined income and expenses for a DFS, including key elements for an implementation process and financial model. Key lessons from the report include:
Member Diamond Bank’s Strategic Partnership and Emerging Business Analyst, David Ita shares a number of issues SMEs face and simple steps on how to solve them.
SMEs are plagued with, lack of access to information, high collateral rates and turn-over of loans. Taking advantage of grants, interventions, venture capitalist and angel investors are a few ways SMEs can maneuver around these common setbacks.
Startups founded by women receive less than 50 percent of investment funds than those founded by men, even though women are achieving 10 percent higher profits, according to Boston Consultant Group. Tokunboh Ishmael, co-founder of Alitheia Identity, an investment management and advisory firm focused on channeling private equity investments into businesses, has set out to bridge this gap by launching a Gender investment fund. A former banker at Saloman Smith Barney, Ishmael has plans to drive financial inclusion with the fund, which will have US$75 – 100 million to invest.
In 2013, together with the European Commission, IFAD partnered with the United Nations Capital Development Fund, the Universal Postal Union, the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute, the World Bank and other key factors in order to address the full potential of postal networks in Africa in facilitating the transfer of remittances, reducing their cost, and increasing financial inclusion in rural areas.
On May 15-16, in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya, 300 plus individuals from more than 175 institutions and 50 countries gathered at the Africa SME Finance Forum to discuss innovative solutions to promote access to finance for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa. As a key supporter of the Forum, the Mastercard Foundation hosted a panel titled “Disrupting Systems: Financing Africa’s Youth Entrepreneurs.”
On May 16, BFA launched the first-ever report on artificial intelligence as it relates to financial services in Africa and the low-income customer. “Artificial Intelligence: Practical Superpowers,” is relevant for fintech companies and FSPs in Africa who are interested in or looking to move into AI. The FIBR paper presents a practical and compelling case for companies to seriously consider AI in their business by:
Through the first Africa SME Finance Forum, IFC, financial institutions and entrepreneurs are seeking to find solutions to close the $331 billion SME finance gap across the continent. The conference on May 15-16 explores local and global best practice SME banking solutions to harness digital technology, e-commerce and blockchain, to promote youth entrepreneurship and new SME banking models. Here are five highlights from Day 1 of the event.
Even with the robust growth in FinTech, some questions remain unanswered - what spurred the FinTech growth? Is it scaleable? Is it sustainable? How are global economies such as India and China accommodating the FinTech disruption? This intellecap report traces back the evolution of FinTech on one of Africa’s early adopting regions, East Africa and covers the views of various voices in the ecosystem, each providing the uniqueness of the emerging sector, sub-models, their value propositions and feasibility, in an attempt to demystify this complex ecosystem.
In Sub-Saharan Africa as elsewhere, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) play a crucial role in economic development and job creation. However, because of a general lack of knowledge about this particular segment, the sector hardly achieves its full potential. In order to better meet MSMEs’ needs, a first step consists in identifying the profiles, growth paths, success factors and challenges faced by those who managed to turn their microenterprises into small or medium entities, referred to as Small and Growing Business (SGB) owners.
