Financial Services

What can be done to increase banking penetration and savings rates?

The Basel III banking accords mark the latest step in the process of harmonising financial regulations across markets, but the nature of their focus – and some of the problems they seek to solve – mean that their relevance to Africa’s emerging and frontier markets can sometimes be limited.

Following the phenomenal success of Kenya’s 10-year-old M-Pesa programme, mobile money and mobile banking initiatives have begun popping up across the African continent. Beginning as a simple and secure way to transfer small amounts of money, mobile money programmes have evolved to offering subscribers a full suite of financial services,...

The insurance sector in Côte d’Ivoire has been posting solid growth figures for years. The pickup in the country’s economy after 2012 has made the sector increasingly attractive, prompting the arrival of new competitors aiming to establish a foothold in West Africa’s biggest insurance market.

Given that the guiding principle of micro-insurance is the provision of insurance cover for people with low incomes, Africa offers an extensive and very promising market for the industry. In 2011 the World Bank reported that almost half of the continent’s population earned less than $1.25 per day.