India Commits $2 Million to Boost Digital Financial Inclusion in Africa

By: WE Staff | Tuesday, 8 August 2023

By promising a $2 million gift to the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Indian government has declared a significant step towards assisting digital financial inclusion initiatives in Africa. Through improved access to digital financial services, this effort seeks to empower underprivileged populations in Africa.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India's successful digital payments system, is anticipated to benefit from the gift from India through facilitating knowledge exchange between ADFI and UPI. Millions of Indian residents' resilience and financial inclusion have been revolutionised through UPI. The joint endeavour aims to use India's knowledge to promote comparable reforms throughout Africa.

India's pledge demonstrates its continued commitment to enhancing digital public infrastructure, which has the potential to improve the lives of the underserved and unbanked communities in Africa. Recent research shows that despite the continent's increasing technology adoption, over half of its more than one billion residents, particularly women, youth, farmers, and those living in rural regions, lack access to digital financial services.

Solomon Quaynor, vice president of the AfDB for the private sector, infrastructure, and industrialization, expressed gratitude for India's assistance and emphasised ADFI's contribution to the advancement of digital financial solutions and financial inclusion in Africa. The statement made by Quaynor was, "We look forward to working together to add learning from India's digital public infrastructure success story within our expanding portfolio of digital financial solutions initiatives to enhance the impact on greater economic empowerment, resilience, and growth across Africa."

Manisha Sinha, a representative of India on the ADFI Governing Council, also lauded India's accomplishments and drew attention to its creative approach to providing financial services to outlying rural regions. In his statement, Sinha said that "India's pioneering role in digital financial services, extending financial inclusion to remote rural areas and creating infrastructure for digitization of financial services, opens 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."

About ADFI: Bridging Gaps in African Financial Inclusion

By 2030, ADFI hopes to add 332 million additional Africans to the formal sector, with an emphasis on 60% women, under the direction of the AfDB. The ADFI focuses on digital financial infrastructure, regulation, and innovation with the support of partners like the Indian government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others. It seeks to strengthen partnerships and implement successful digital financial inclusion initiatives across Africa through grants and loans. AfDB's $8 million investment in an interoperable bank ID system further supports this goal and promotes financial inclusion in West African nations.