India commits $2 million to boost digital financial inclusion across Africa
The Indian government will contribute $2 million to the African Development Bank’s (www.AfDB.org) Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), reaffirming its commitment to breaking down barriers to the growth and uptake of digital financial solutions and accelerating financial inclusion in Africa.
India’s collaboration with ADFI allows the facility to learn from best practices and help scale up initiatives to meet the needs of financially excluded and underserved people in Africa. India is globally recognized for the success of its digital public payments system, which has transformed governance, financial inclusion, and resilience for millions of people nationwide.
Despite mounting evidence that digitization is catalyzing sustainable development in Africa, new data (https://apo-opa.info/3KqhmDn) show that nearly half of the continent’s adult population, particularly women, youth, farmers, small businesses, and rural communities, do not have access to digital financial solutions.
Manisha Sinha, Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs and Principal ADFI Governing Council Member for India, stated that India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) model is unique, affordable, inclusive, and equitable, providing shared learning opportunities across the digital finance ecosystem.
“India’s pioneering role in digital financial services, extending financial inclusion to remote rural areas and creating infrastructure for the digitisation of financial services, opens up a significant opportunity for India to work within the ADFI partnership to share learning and expertise on digital public infrastructure to further digital financial inclusion across the continent,” Ms Sinha added.
ADFI supports the African Development Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy, which focuses on inclusive growth, as well as the High 5 priority of improving the quality of life for Africans. Its role also corresponds with the Bank’s financial sector development department’s objective to promote underserved people’s access to financing. Under the three major strategic pillars of infrastructure, laws and regulations, and product innovation, ADFI works to scale breakthrough digital financial solutions.
All approaches include capacity building and gender inclusion.
“We welcome the Government of India’s support of the catalytic role ADFI has been playing in accelerating greater access and usage of digital financial solutions and financial inclusion across the continent,” said Solomon Quaynor, African Development Bank vice president for the Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialization. We look forward to collaborating to incorporate lessons learned from India’s digital public infrastructure success story into our growing portfolio of digital financial solutions efforts to improve the impact on increased economic empowerment, resilience, and growth across Africa.”
