Africa

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, working in agriculture tends to be an extremely labor-intensive job with high risk and low payoff. As a result, new generations of farmers and other entrepreneurs are often deterred from pursuing a career in agriculture. This leaves the agricultural industry with ageing farmers and declining agricultural production. One potential solution, however, is the mechanization of farming which can help decrease the need for hard, manual labor, while also improving production, household incomes, and livelihoods.

Commercial Bank of Africa Limited (“CBA”), Kenya’s largest privately owned Bank, has recently launched the region’s first Digital Banking Service, CBA Loop, which incorporates Personal Financial Management (PFM) solution, in collaboration with Strands. CBA, has presence across several countries in Eastern Africa including Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda and has plans to expand its footprint to other suitable markets in Africa including Ivory Coast and Nigeria. This will mark the first end-to- end full digital banking proposition in Eastern Africa.

Three of the leading organizations in Africa working with smallholder farmers have joined The MasterCard Foundation to reaffirm their commitment to provide farmers with more of the financial resources and agribusiness connections they need to succeed.

Ecobank has earmarked $500,000 (about Rwf410 million) to support startups and young innovators across the African continent.The funds are part of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge 2017 meant to support young entrepreneurs on the continent.However, entrepreneurs will first convince the Pan-African lender by showcasing bankable business plans and innovative solutions before they can benefit from the fund, said Ade Ayeyemi, the Ecobank Group CEO.

This report, jointly produced by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and Energy 4 Impact with the support of UKAid and CME Group Foundation, is the first study of its kind that systematically and comprehensively reports the size and growth of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending markets in Africa and the Middle East.

Many migrants from Africa, and further afield, embark on a precarious journey in search of Economic and Financial Freedom. This dangerous journey all too often results in tragic endings for the individuals seeking a better life. But why do they go to such extraordinary lengths and dangers to venture into unfamiliar lands? The easiest explanation is this: freedom of action and opportunity.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) have signed an agreement signed to enhance access to quality financial services on the continent. The agreement aims to create a collaboration framework to promote financial inclusion in Africa.

The Africa SME Programme supports African local Financial Institutions (FIs) with long term liquidity (Lines of Credit) and with technical assistance to be able to successfully provide relevant financing to local small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and to build larger and good quality SME loan portfolios. The Programme can also support the FIs’ SME clients to ensure better loan application preparations (for example, development of business plans, financial literacy training, etc.).

This study follows-up on our 2015 study on “Recent Trends in Banking in sub-Saharan Africa - From Financing to Investment”. Against the background of a rapidly evolving context for the SSA banking industry, the Economics Department of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has coordinated this volume, which combines in-house expertise on the region with contributions from leading specialists from the local financial sector and from international financial institutions and research centres.