eBusiness Weekly
BH24 Reporter
HARARE – Fintech is boosting financial inclusion across Africa, according to Ecobank, one the leading independent pan-African banking group and a pioneer in Africa’s digital transformation. The Ecobank group has operations in Zimbabwe.
Although over 80 percent of Africans have mobile phones, only around one quarter (28 percent) of them have bank account. But mobile banking and e-wallets are helping to break the banking logjam, offering a range of alternative payment methods as well as lending and savings services. This has boosted the overall financial inclusion rate to 34 percent, and it is growing each day.
However, there are many barriers to wider use of new technology where a step change is needed in attitudes and approaches towards innovation.
Ecobank’s work with e-commerce, small business, and consumers – through their mobile banking app and other e-products – is helping organisations and individuals to overcome these barriers and stimulate wider usage. According to the head of the UK representative office of Ecobank and Group Research, Dr Edward George:
“Nearly all the growth in financial inclusion since 2011 has been due to mobile banking services. With around 100 million users of e-wallets, Africans account for around half (57, 6 percent) of all mobile wallets in the world,” he said.
“However, people are often stuck in their ways – whether a market trader or top executive – and the challenge is to change the mindset and open them up to the opportunities of digital.
“Disruptive technology is about recognising these challenges and seeing technology as an enabler, not a panacea, and by adapting innovations to the reality on the ground. That is what we are doing at Ecobank to help businesses and individuals take the digital leapfrog.”
Ecobank currently has a presence in 36 African countries, namely: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Democratic Republic), Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
