African Development Bank starts fund to support mobile money systems

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners launched the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), designed to aid safety and expansion of digital financial transactions in Africa. The aim is to ensure that at least 320 million more Africans, of which nearly 60 percent are women, have access to digital financial services.

The fund will deploy US$100 million in grants and US$300 million in the form of debt from the Bank’s ordinary capital resources by 2030, to scale up electronic financial services for low-income communities. The interventions will be aligned to 4 pillars: infrastructure, including digital and interoperable mobile payment systems; digital products and innovation; policy and regulatory reform and harmonization; and capacity building.

ADFI’s opening project, which serves as a pilot for the facility, is a US$11.3 million grant which will create an interoperable digital payment system that will allow consumers to send and receive money between mobile wallets, and from these wallets to other digital and bank accounts.

Source: Telecom Paper