Fintech to all:
From access to
economic empowerment

On the 4th of March Aion Sigma hosted Empower Africa with Impact Business stage talks as a part of the Helsinki Nordic Impact Week.

Susanne Hannestad, the CEO of Fintech Mundi, walks-and-talks financial inclusion and is also mentoring us and the other few lucky teams at MasterCard Lighthouse MASSIV Programme. She came over from Oslo to focus our attention, once again, on the importance of financial inclusion to the global economy. Her talk is now available in full on our youtube channel: Fintech for All: From access to Economic Empowerment.

Right off the bat Susanne brought up the important question – Why does financial inclusion matter? Take a moment to stop and think about that:

• even at this very moment there’s nearly 2 billion people who still don’t have access to financial services
• 3 billion people who are still uninsured
• 80% of the financial transactions done around the world are made using cash.

But it’s not all doom and gloom in the world of finances. Since 2011 the share of adults with an account has steadily increased. For example in most of Africa as a whole the amount has increased from 23% of people in 2011 to 43% in 2017 (source: 2017 Findex). This may not seem as much to some people, but it does mean that we are headed in the right direction towards financial inclusion and banking for everyone. However, Susanne highlights, nearly 50% of bank and mobile money accounts are dormant [meaning inactive at the moment]. The financial access exists, but clearly not on a daily, ongoing basis.

Now how should this problem with inclusion be unraveled? As Susanne brought out, we should focus on creating more flexibility. A system that works in, for example, in the Nordic countries can not be implanted into a country such as Cameroon and expected to work similarly. There should be shared goals to pursue. The cost of the finance should be reduced and tools should be user-friendly. It’s also important to keep it culturally relevant. Working on the cultural differences and understanding them is a big part in building a good solution to help with financial inclusion.

It’s also good to keep in mind that it’s not only about the economy – it’s also about the people who will benefit from it. They should be one of the main points and should not be forgotten when talking about things such as financial inclusion and economic empowerment.

Susanne also mentioned the Mastercard Foundation. One of it’s focus areas is on helping economically disadvantaged young people, farmers and traders in Africa. The foundation seeks to help these people find opportunities to move them and their closed ones from poverty to a better life.

Watch the full talk here

Fintech Mundi helps high potential financial technology companies to develop their ideas, commercialize their products and grow their businesses internationally. Read more about Fintech Mundi.

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Aion Sigma empowers African entrepreneurs through access to financial and digital (smartphone) loans. By 2020 we have helped more than 10,000 people in Kenya, Zambia, Namibia and Tanzania. Check our website for further details and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Our CEO Jari also writes great pieces on Medium.