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The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) recently participated in an International Conference on Tropical Sciences that focused on the contributions of Science and Technology in addressing the challenges and value of the Tropical region to achieve sustainability. The virtual conference took place on October 25-27, 2021. Prof. Njuguna Ndung’u, the AERC Executive Director made a presentation on “Financial Inclusion Supported by Digital Evolution for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in the Tropics.”

The Conference provided a platform to bring together stakeholders to position the Tropics in the context of global development and identify needed interventions by government, private sector, and academia. High level policy makers, industry captains and researchers engaged in a collaborative environment. The conference addressed Tropical Agriculture, Tropical Architecture and Engineering, Tropical Medicine and Tropical Natural Resources.

Curated discussions under these themes included Changing Landscape of Agriculture in the Tropics, Smart Cities in the Tropics, Sustainable Blue Economy in the Tropics, and the One Health Approach to Tropical Health as well as financial issues. It is important to note that the Tropics has a population of 3 billion, 55 % of whom are under 5 years old, covers 40 % of the world’s agricultural area and 80 % of the world’s biodiversity.

The Mahathir Science Award Foundation and the Academy of Sciences Malaysia convened the Conference to provide a platform to bring together these stakeholders. The Conference attracted renowned personalities including Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, American economist, academic, public policy analyst and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Prof. Muhammad Yunus, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance, Prof. Dr Shenggen Fan, Dean and Policy Chair, China Agricultural University, Prof. Gbolagade Ayoola, President – Farm & Infrastructure Foundation, Prof. Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a leading scholar and expert on the political economy of development, especially in Southeast Asia and Prof. Stewart Lockie, President of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Environment and Society among others.

Prof. Ndung’u noted that developing a mobile phone-based retail electronic payments platform that was real time has pushed the digital financial ecosystem and financial inclusion. He also added that there are now over 1 billion phone-based accounts in 95 developing countries and transacting over US$2.0 billion every day.

He emphasized that beyond financial services, in Africa, citizens can reach out to government services via e-Government. E-learning platforms have been developed and have emerged as important tools for training, capacity building and e-working. Today, FinTechs have designed business models with electronic payments platforms that cut across all sectors of the economy.

“Financial inclusion has been a success, and there is evidence of financial development, inclusive finance, and poverty reduction. And in the retail electronic payments ecosystem – commercial banks are using this technological platform to manage micro depositors and savers”, said Prof. Ndung’u.