eBusiness Weekly
Enacy Mapakame
Fintech companies need to correctly position themselves and grab opportunities in the sector, which is critical in enabling cross border payments and successful implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The AfCFTA is a trade agreement among 54 African countries that aim to create a single market for goods and services in Africa and seeks to boost intra-African trade by removing tariffs on 90 percent of goods traded within the continent.
This will create a larger market for African goods and services, as well as expected to be a game-changer for Africa’s economic development, with estimates suggesting that it could boost intra-African trade by up to 52 percent by 2022.
Grouping together, the countries create a market worth over US$3 trillion.
Cross border payments and infrastructure supporting this becomes a necessity, according to experts.
In line with this, the 9th edition of the Africa Fintech Summit to be held in Washington DC, will focus on US-Africa tech connection, fintech regulatory best practices, diaspora banking and remittance, African fintechs expanding globally, cross-border payment movements, and use cases for decentralised finance (Defi), fintech funding trends, cross-border payments under the AfCFTA, and other spotlight topics.
Zimbabwe has the likes of ZimSwitch and EcoCash Holdings spearheading the fintech sector with adoption of digitalisation which was spearheaded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently due to Covid-19, the country’s financial services sector also witnessed a growing number of fintech start-ups keen to offer innovative financial products and services, according to the RBZ, which also prompted the central bank to come up with a Fintech Regulatory Sandbox Guidelines for the sector.
To further boost the growth of the sector and its contribution not only in Zimbabwe but across the region, Prosper Africa – the US Government initiative aimed at boosting two-way trade and investment between the United States and African countries, has announced its sponsorship of the Africa Fintech Summit in Washington DC.
The event, scheduled to take place on April 12, 2023, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, is set to be the largest bi-annual financial technology gathering on the African continent.
The announcement comes on the back of the US-Africa Leadership Summit and the US-Africa Business Forum held in December 2022 in Washington, D.C. and the launch of the White House’s Digital Transformation with Africa (DTA) initiative.
Prosper Africa is launching the Prosper Africa Tech for Trade Alliance, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at the Africa Fintech Summit.
The Tech Alliance, comprised of major US companies, aims to accelerate e-commerce and digital trade in Africa and address legal, regulatory, and logistical bottlenecks across the continent.
Scott Cameron, Acting Prosper Africa Co-ordinator, said, “Africa’s digital ecosystem offers massive potential to spur economic recovery, promote opportunity, and create jobs.
We’re pleased to join the Africa Fintech Summit as a Gold Sponsor and partner for the upcoming 9th Summit here in Washington DC.”
The event will bring together tech innovators, founders, and ecosystem players from the US and Africa to showcase the full suite of US Government services and resources to advance fintech growth and US-Africa investment.
In June 2019, the US Government launched Prosper Africa to increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and African countries. The initiative has helped close 1100 deals across 49 countries for a total estimated value of $65 billion in two-way trade and investment.
