News

The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), in partnership with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), has announced that the 61st Biannual Plenary Session focusing on the FinTech Revolution in Africa is now scheduled for December 1st, 2024, in Nairobi, Kenya.

This session will provide a platform for commercial banking leaders to share their successes and lessons in navigating challenges and seizing untapped opportunities. Through their insights, we can explore how digital transformation and strategic partnerships, can deepen financial inclusion and add value to economies across the region.”

FinTech projected to grow thirteenfold to US$65 billion by 2030 and will have a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32%

This year’s theme, “The FinTech Revolution in Africa,” reflects the continent’s pivotal role in driving global financial innovation and highlights its potential for inclusive growth and economic transformation. The event was officially opened by CBK Governor Dr. Kamau Thugge, underscoring the importance of central bank leadership in navigating Africa’s financial technology landscape.

The theme “Central Bank Digital Currencies: Where Are We?” This session will engage central bank governors from across Africa in exploring the evolution and adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Discussions will cover how CBDCs can address pressing economic challenges, enhance financial inclusion, improve local and cross-border payments, and ensure monetary sovereignty amidst the rise of cryptocurrencies.

Professional services firm BDO, in a report titled Unlocked Potential Fintech In Africa, noted that Africa’s Fintech market – led by South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya – is projected to grow thirteenfold to US$65 billion by 2030 and will have a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32%. The report disclosed that leading the charge is ‘mobile money’, the continent’s ubiquitous solution for the unbanked, enabling seamless transfers and payments. Alongside this powerhouse, lending platforms are leveraging alternative data to offer microloans and other financial products to previously underserved populations.

The AERC is a leader in policy-oriented economic research in the continent, and its biannual research workshops have become the largest gatherings of professional economists in sub-Saharan Africa. The Consortium was established in 1988 as an organization devoted to building capacity for economic policy research into problems relevant to the management of economies in sub-Saharan Africa. The AERC is a network that builds capacity through three primary components: research, graduate training in economics, and communications and policy outreach. The organization integrates high quality economic policy research, postgraduate training, and policy outreach within a vast network of researchers, universities, and policy makers across Africa and beyond. In the current five years strategy, the AERC has emphasized the themes of raising its quality for research and graduate training outputs that will develop a momentum of its own sustainability that will become important for policy influence across SSA economies

Source: Kenya Governance Magazine on December 10, 2024