Africa doubled its rate of financial inclusion over the last two years but while much of the continent is moving ambitiously to deploy mobile money to give hope and opportunity to millions, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation is being left behind data show.
Financial inclusion in Africa has risen to 45% on the back of aggressive deployment of mobile money and now Ethiopia is gearing up to grow its GDP by 10% by 2023 by a massive mobile money roll out says Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and United Nations special advocate for inclusive finance.
She was speaking on a special panel on Africa at the World Economic Forum in Davos which has as panellist President Mokgweesi Masisi of Botswana.
Worry is that Nigeria which has won the dubious label of being the poverty capital of the world, is moving too slowly and with little inspiration in its adoption of mobile money.
Months ago, Nigeria issue three mobile licenses but analysts say the big hitters like Airtel and MTN with the size and inclination to make the massive impact that Nigeria needs have been ignored while less endowed players have been given mobile money licenses. And even then, those have been given licenses cannot engage in lending.
Queen Maxima says what Africa needs is smarter financial regulation to open the space, the proliferation of broadband in a continent where only 7% of the people have access to 4G, more investment in women.
She adduced evidence to show that in Tanzania farmers were able to boost productivity by 16% via Agric insurance on the back of mobile money.
The Dutch Agric credit firm ROBO Bank has tapped MasterCard to impact 6 million farmers in Africa, the Dutch Queen said.
President Masisi said the continent needs to create the ecosystem that the recently agreed free trade project require to thrive as well as the improvement in the way countries in Africa relate with one another.
