The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has been elected as the African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) Vice Chair.

Seychelles however takes over as AfPI Chair.

AfPI Leaders’ Roundtable will therefore be held in Seychelles in 2023.

The Central Bank of Seychelles took over as the Chair of AFI’s African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) from the Bank of Tanzania.

Prof. Florens D.M.A Luoga, Governor Bank of Tanzania, handed over the post to his Seychelles counterpart, Governor Caroline Abel, on 23^rd June, 2022 during AfPI Leaders’ roundtable in Arusha, Tanzania. Governor Abel is the first woman to Chair an AFI regional initiative.

Expressing appreciation and honour given to him and cooperation he enjoyed with AFI Management Unit and from members of the African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI), Professor Luoga welcomed Governor Abel as the new chair during the closed AfPI leaders’ discussion.

He thanked Prof Luoga and the Bank of Tanzania for the leadership during the past two challenging years of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

AFI Executive Director, Dr. Alfred Hannig praised collaboration and engagement both in the Africa region and the global network.

“This week’s meetings were a testimonial to what was possible with the guidance and leadership of BoT and Professor Luoga”, Dr. Hannig said before inviting the new chair to give her remarks.

Honoured and humbled about the new role for her institution, Governor Abel assumed the post noting that this “noble task of fostering partnerships and exchanging experiences would further take the network to new heights and continue to play a critical role in peer learning on innovative financial inclusion policies across the African continent”.

She emphasised that diversity in both AFI’s biggest regional initiative and the global network presents ample opportunities to gain new perspectives and strengthen efforts to move forward.

“Our journey to enhance financial inclusion is ongoing. We have to adapt to changing realities to enhance financial services for all and achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth”, Seychelles Governor said in her acceptance remarks.

Governor Abel’s post of the AfPI Chair reflects the progress made in gender and women-inclusive finance in the network as part of work under the Denarau Action Plan (DAP).

Overwhelmingly endorsed by the network in 2016, the DAP targets to accelerate women’s financial inclusion by halving the financial inclusion gender gap across AFI member jurisdictions by 2021, strengthen women’s leadership and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 5 on gender equality.

The Leaders also approved EGFIP’s new composition, which now includes Bank of Namibia as the New Chair, taking over from Bank Al-Maghrib, while the Bank of Tanzania has been elected as the Vice-Chair. Experts identified four key emerging policy areas to work on: consumer protection for digital financial services, digital financial literacy, inclusive fintech, fintech and data to map the impact of fintech on financial inclusion in the region.

10th Leaders’ Roundtable in Africa

Earlier in the day, leaders of AFI member institutions in Africa, governors, deputy governors and special representations held their 10th annual Leaders’ Roundtable.

This is the first time AFI Africa leaders met in person, following two years of virtual work.

Leaders discussed inclusive digital finance and policies that promote financial inclusion for vulnerable groups such as women, the youth, forcibly displaced persons, and rural and remote communities.

High-level public-private dialogue which followed, offered an exchange of market-based solutions that promote sustainable and inclusive finance.

“This week’s programme showed how the network has matured. This is obvious from contributions and quality of solutions shared. The spirit of our community is back” AFI’s Hannig told the leaders adding that members in the region showed incredible resilience and energy over the past two years.

“This region has been instrumental in making AFI a leading global policy alliance”, Dr Hannig underscored and thanked Bank of Tanzania for its leadership.