Well as thousands of people across Africa are actively involved in Informal Cross Border Trade, this line of business continues to face multiple challenges, which mainly affect women and youth as they are the majority. Such challenges include but to limited to forex issues, restricted access to formal financial services, low levels of digital and financial literacy, consumer protection challenges, underrepresentation in financial leadership, discriminatory cultural practices, limited financial products tailored to their needs, high transaction costs, and intricate account opening procedures.
In a move to address these bottlenecks, COMESA Business Council (CBC) and partners are developing a financial technology enabled Digital Retail Payments Platform.
According to Dr. Jonathan Pinifolo, Chief Operating Officer of the Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI) Program at COMESA Business Council, the regional digital retail payments platform is aimed at supporting micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) in addition to enhancing digital financial inclusion across the COMESA region and Africa at large.
“For the DFI program, we are coming up with a regional retail payment platform that will connect commercial banks and non-banks like for instance; mobile network operators, FinTechs as well as Microfinance institutions (MFIs). We want to make sure that traders through out COMESA are able to send money from one country to another country without any challenges. We shall also connect an e-commerce platform where traders can check market information, and sell products because at the moment, there are also challenges to do with market information,” Dr Pinifolo said, adding;
“The platform will bring a lot of value like for instance interoperability; it will interconnect with other payment systems. Secondly, our traders will be able to transact using local currencies. The platform will also ease access to finance and market information. During COVID-19, people suffered as they were not able to move around to access markets. The online platform will address this. Lastly, this platform will have a wider geographical reach and thus present a huge market for our traders.
The Digital Retail Payments Platform being spearheaded by the COMESA Business Council with support from partners was presented on the first day of 40 Days 40 FinTechs for Zambia and Malawi.
Dr Pinifolo acknowledged HiPipo for its commitment to Africa’s digital and financial inclusion journey noting that “for about two years now, our partnership with HiPipo has grown from just discussions to implementing projects that are impacting last mile users.” He thanked the Gates Foundation for supporting the programs that are being jointly implemented by HiPipo and COMESA Business Council.
The roll-out of the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative in Zambia and Malawi followed its success in East Africa. Over the past 5 years, the 40 Days 40 FinTechs initiative has featured over 200 FinTech stories from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. This initiative has also engaged hundreds of end-users and shared their stories with millions worldwide.
The primary objective of this initiative is to support and showcase innovative FinTech giants and startups from across Africa, with a focus on promoting financial inclusion and economic growth, in addition to giving start-ups access to the resources they need to develop new and innovative financial solutions that can benefit underserved populations. Such resources include but are not limited to Level One Project guidelines, Mojaloop Open Source Software and Inclusive Finance systems, etc.