AfDB and partners launch facility to connect 320 million Africans to digital financial services
The African Development Bank and its partners have launched the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), designed to aid safety and expansion of digital financial transactions in Africa.
The fund is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Agence Française de Developpement and the government of Luxembourg as initial contributors. The aim is to ensure that at least 320 million more Africans, of which nearly 60 percent are women, have access to digital financial services.
The fund will deploy USD 100 million in grants and USD 300 million in the form of debt from the Bank’s ordinary capital resources by 2030, to scale up electronic financial services for low-income communities.
The interventions will be aligned to four pillars: infrastructure, including digital and interoperable (mobile) payment systems; digital products and innovation; policy and regulatory reform and harmonisation; and capacity building.
ADFI’s opening project, which serves as a pilot for the facility, is a USD 11.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Bank and the Central Bank of West African States.
The grant will create an interoperable digital payment system that will allow consumers to send and receive money between mobile wallets, and from these wallets to other digital and bank accounts.
