Financial services
Across the continent, fintech isn’t so much disrupting traditional financial services as building up a historically underdeveloped industry and driving financial inclusion outside the traditional banking systems. In recent years, Africa has witnessed impressive gains in the development of digital financial services (DFS) for financial inclusion.
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By creating a pool of tech-based products and solutions, that focus strongly on including and catering as much people as possible, including mobile money (now used in over 30 countries across the continent), online payment processing, lending, and investing, the fintech startups are plugging large gaps that exist in local financial service industries. In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, the World Health Organisation has been cautioning against the use of hard currency and encouraging the use of digital payments. Even with all the fintech solutions, it is still a challenge in a continent, where around 66% of the adult population in Africa remains unbanked. Could the coronavirus pandemic provide the trigger that pushes Africa towards becoming a digital economy? What pre-existing conditions have become the crucial building blocks that will foster this?
Ideas we are looking for:
- Fintech ideas that encourage the use of mobile money and digital wallets for peer to peer, implement cross-border payment solutions
- Peer to peer lending platforms.
- Solutions that foster seamless intra-Africa trade that will make it easier for everyday Africans to conveniently and affordably access financial services and for consumers and businesses to make and accept payments with fewer hoops.
- Solutions to encourage online merchant payments to service the essential business transactions.
- Creative lending practices for SME’s (encourage the reduction of rates, refocusing on capital loans with a max duration of a year to offer bridge financing to SME’s and micro-enterprises, etc.).
- Creative loan practices for investment loans.
- Mobilization of public funds to compensate for the damage suffered as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
