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MAPUTO/KUALA LUMPUR (3 December 2020) – Banco de Moçambique and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) are organizing the Third Global Conference on Inclusive Green Finance (IGF) on 3 December 2020. Governor of the Banco de Mocambique Rogério Zandamela and AFI Executive Director Dr. Alfred Hannig will provide opening remarks.
By leveraging financial inclusion to support climate and environmental action, financial regulators are enabling those at the base of the economic pyramid to build resilience and adapt to the impacts of climate change, while building back their economies hit by the current pandemic. The virtual global conference on IGF is a unique opportunity for policy makers in the AFI network to take stock of the achievements made so far and map out the next steps to ensure IGF policy development and drive in-country implementation. This comes at a time when it is more urgent than ever to ensure that those at the base of the economic pyramid are not further excluded and that they are empowered to build their own resilience to the impacts of climate change through financial inclusion.
“As central banks and regulators, we are called to incorporate sustainability and resilience into our policy frameworks, addressing environmental, climate and social factors”, said Governor of the Banco de Moçambique, Rogério Zandamela in his opening remarks.
Moçambique’s exposure natural phenomena, including two consecutive major cyclones in 2019, Idai and Kenneth, imposed mobility restrictions, which reinforced the need and importance of access to digital financial services, made possible through a strong collaboration between the Banco de Moçambique, as the financial regulator, banks and Mobile Money Institutions as well as government institutions and the private sector.
Recognizing the potential of digital financial services and FinTechs in driving financial inclusion, as pioneers in the field, Banco de Moçambique introduced a Regulatory Sandbox for FinTechs.
“The Regulatory Sandbox represents an opportunity to leverage financial innovations, in a controlled environment, for the development and testing of technology-based green finance solutions,”, Governor Zandamela emphasised in his opening remarks.
AFI’s Executive Director Dr. Alfred Hannig noted that these challenging times offer opportunities and take action to ensure those at the base of the economic pyramid are not left behind.
“A green recovery can also cater to a more sustainable economy. However, the image of a straightforward re-start as this current opportunity is portrayed by some global stakeholders could also lead us to overly simplistic conclusions. We at AFI think that we do not have to start all over again. Instead, let us use this opportunity to leverage our valuable and solid learnings from the past to move our agenda forward”, Dr. Hannig said. This will lead us into a better normal.
Emphasizing that the conference will be an opportunity to discuss how to both advance IGF globally and at the in-country level, Dr. Hannig called for discussions to advance IGF policy area from a strategic perspective with AFI and partners providing support.
“There is already a lot of movement around green finance policy development globally, but we need to go deeper, ensuring that we are including those at the base of the pyramid in the efforts both to build resilience and enable mitigation to climate change and environmental degradation”, Dr. Hannig highlighted.
The conference will also include the launch a new reflection paper and framework that further conceptualizes IGF as a policy area and shares practices and experiences of AFI members, developed in collaboration with SOAS University of London to provide additional guidance in IGF policy development.
The event builds on the high-level engagements during the IGF Conferences in 2018 and 2019, co-hosted by the Reserve Bank of Fiji and Bank Al-Maghrib respectively. Highlighting in-country implementation efforts in the AFI network, the global conference will offer an opportunity to spotlight Maya Declaration Commitments made under the Sharm El Sheikh Accord on financial inclusion, climate change and green finance, endorsed by AFI members during 2017 AFI Global Policy Forum.
As pioneers of IGF, AFI members continue to develop and implement financial inclusion policies that mitigate and build resilience to and climate change amongst the most vulnerable. IGF contributes to the implementation of the Paris Agreement, as well as the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Goal 1: no poverty, Goal 7: affordable and clean energy, Goal 13: climate action and Goal 17: partnership for the goals.
AFI’s Inclusive Green Finance (IGF) workstream is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), based on a decision of the German Bundestag.
ABOUT BANCO DE MOCAMBIQUE
Member of AFI since 2011, Banco de Moçambique (BdM) has since reported changes in the areas of digital financial services, consumer empowerment and market conduct, and financial inclusion strategy. BdM has assumed Maya Declaration commitments to work on development of policies on SME finance, consumer protection and inclusive green finance. BdM hosted the prestigious Global Policy Forum in 2015 and the launch of the African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) in May 2017 from previous AMPI (African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative).
ABOUT AFI
AFI is the world’s leading organization on financial inclusion policy and regulation. Roughly 100 member institutions make up the AFI network including central banks, ministries of finance and other financial regulators from 90 developing and emerging countries. AFI works on empowering policymakers to increase access and usage of quality financial services for the underserved through formulation, implementation and global advocacy of sustainable and inclusive policies.
© Alliance for Financial Inclusion 2009-2024
