4th Annual Leaders Roundtable of the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI)

Opening remarks by Norbert Mumba, Deputy Executive Director at the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, in Dakar, Senegal on 4 February 2016. Check against delivery.

Honorable Governor Tiémoko Meyliet Koné,

Honorable Governors of Central Banks,

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and gentleman,

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome everyone here in Dakar to the Alliance for Financial Inclusion’s 4th Annual Leaders’ Roundtable of the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative.

I would like to offer my gratitude to the authorities of Senegal, along with BCEAO, for the remarkable effort demonstrated in organizing this meeting. Governor Koné, allow me to especially express my appreciation to you and your staff for permitting us to convene in this magnificent city. I also wish to thank Professor Ndung’u and the AFI team present here for their role in making this event possible.

It is pleasing to see so many of our members in the audience, with 26 nations across the AFI network represented at this roundtable. AMPI embodies the ongoing paradigm shift toward peer learning and knowledge exchange that the Alliance for Financial Inclusion has championed over the years. We are honored to continue to assume an important role in this new form of dialogue.

As many are aware, AFI has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I am happy to announce that as of January 27th, 2016, AFI is a fully independent, member-owned organization registered under the International Organizations Act of the Laws of Malaysia.

This is an incredibly significant achievement that puts the AFI network in an even stronger position than ever to help the world’s unbanked. The development of our network is representative of the positive impact financial inclusion has had on the world.

No where is this impact more evident than in Africa.

From the Cape to Cairo, mobile financial services have altered the financial landscape by advancing the frontiers of financial inclusion across the continent. Africa’s MFS success story is now being effectively replicated across the world.

These advances would not have been possible without the foresight, persistence and resolve of AFI policymakers and regulators, as well as our network’s successful peer-learning model. AFI members have routinely exhibited a willingness to come together to better harness new technologies and business models that scale up financial inclusion.

Because of this, every day, more and more of the financial tools the unbanked need to build better lives are within their grasp. I thank you for your part in making this a reality.

From the Cape to Cairo, mobile financial services have altered the financial landscape by advancing the frontiers of financial inclusion across the continent. Africa’s MFS success story is now being effectively replicated across the world.

Ladies and gentlemen,

AMPI was created by AFI members in Africa to provide a platform for high-level leadership in the overall development of mobile financial services policy and regulatory frameworks. The initiative serves as a mechanism to drive responsible uptake of the use of MFS in Africa, and to contribute to regional peer learning and best practices.

This, in turn, expands knowledge and promotes mobile financial services policy development throughout the entire AFI network.

AMPI established a framework through which AFI members determine effective policy solutions for advancing mobile financial services across the African continent. This is accomplished through cooperation among policymakers and regulators, the private sector, development partners and various research institutions.

One of the driving forces behind the creation of the AFI Public-Private Dialogue Platform was the recognition of the important roles the private sector and development partners shoulder in the expansion of mobile financial services in Africa.

Many AFI PPD partners have sent high-level representatives to this meeting. I hope those participants seize this occasion to voice their views and share experiences with our members regulating new and high-growth markets. This roundtable is an excellent opportunity for PPD partners to assist regulators in identifying and addressing the regulatory barriers to scaling up new technologies and approaches in Africa.

Over the next two days, we will explore a range of issues, including:

• Collaborative approaches among financial regulators to enable digital cross-border remittances;
• The role of regulators for effective interoperability in digital financial services;
• The responsibilities of regulators in facilitating synergies between micro-finance institutions and digital financial services;
• And, emerging trends in digital financial services in Africa.

Resolving these issues is key to making mobile financial services cheaper and more efficient. This will lead to more and more people having access to affordable financial services.

Over the course of the next two days, it is also expected that the revised AMPI strategic plan will be outlined for discussion and guidance from leaders. Moreover, we aim to propose an institutional framework for AMPI and draw a road map toward establishing a physical presence for the initiative in Africa to make operations more effective.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Across Africa, along with the rest of the world, the Maya Declaration has been a proven driver of successful evidence-based financial inclusion policy solutions. Twenty-five African nations have specific commitments to the Maya Declaration, many with a focus on digital financial services.

Some of these commitments have already been achieved. In Tanzania the central bank implemented interoperability solutions for efficiency and affordability for increased access.

In Mozambique, BOM approved and implemented agent banking regulatory framework.

And in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the central bank introduced mobile banking, along with other means of agent banking, as well as increased the nation’s banking penetration rate.

Maya Declaration commitments hold a promise of hope to affect positive change in the lives of many different people. At times, it might be as common as helping a local fisherman access a loan for a new fishing boat and nets. Or, it could be as extraordinary as contributing to humanitarian relief efforts during times of crisis.

We bore witness to the latter when mobile financial services assumed a significant role for the continuity of business in many African countries during the health crisis resulting from the Ebola outbreak.

In Sierra Leone mobile money providers were engaged by international and national organizations to provide financial services for health workers in the country, particularly important for ones in rural areas. Meanwhile, a focus on the eradication of the virus in Liberia heightened and intensified efforts to achieve the central bank’s Maya Declaration commitment to undertake initiatives ensuring that mobile financial services reach at least 50% of the population.

Our members have demonstrated remarkable leadership, holding themselves accountable to one another to deliver on the hope inherent in each Maya commitment. This will continue as countries, under the Maya Declaration, outline new goals and targets to unlock the economic and social promise of the unbanked through greater financial inclusion.

…leadership and learning are indispensable to one another.

[Conclusion]

Ladies and gentlemen,

Permit me to conclude these remarks with a reminder that leadership and learning are indispensable to one another.

This is an idea that nicely sums up the core of the AFI network.

We are leading the world in driving successful, evidence-based financial inclusion policies, and we are able to do so because of this unique peer-to-peer learning mechanism which makes our network so strong.

The United Nations recognized this fact here in Africa in 2015, with the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The agenda outlined a strong case for the role of financial inclusion and singled out AFI as the ideal partner for facilitating financial inclusion peer learning and knowledge sharing between nations and regions.

The agenda also committed the international community to strive toward total and equitable access to formal financial services for everyone. And it urged stakeholders to include financial inclusion as a top policy objective in financial regulation, while stating that the full implementation of this agenda is critical for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

AFI members represent a vast majority of the world’s unbanked.

We understand the impact financial inclusion can have on that population. Each of us recognize that until we reach every person who remains excluded, the development community will not have the impact it seeks.

I am confident that at the end of these two days of reflection and discussion, our members, regulators and policymakers, together with other actors, will set AMPI on the right path so we can continue to advance digital and mobile financial services across Africa.

I wish each of you a productive and successful two days.

Thank you.