Can Fintech fuel Africa’s Covid recovery?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2020

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

2019 was a landmark year for investment into digital financial services, or Fintech, across Africa. Despite the pandemic, the Fintech scene is not only still thriving; it’s poised to play a key role in Africa’s economic recovery. Uzoma Dozie, the head of Nigerian startup Sparkle, says with Covid limiting our ability to handle cash, the cashless revolution in Africa is moving along rapidly. But Viola Llewellyn, president of Ovamba Solutions, which helps finance small businesses across Africa, says some sectors of African banking still lagged behind in digital services provision. Barbara Iyayi of Unicorn Growth Capital says Africa has a “perfect storm” of a young population, prevalent mobile services and a low rate of bank account holding, means Fintech will thrive across African economies but the infrastructure needs to be built up more.

(Image credit: Getty Creative)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Tamerson Ford. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC.
0:06.9	2019 was a record-breaking fundraising year for startups in Africa, driven by the fintech sector.
0:14.9	2020 was set to go even further. Because of the way Africa leap frogs technology, we went directly from cash
0:24.4	and a little bit of banking, passed credit cards directly to these digital platforms, digital
0:29.9	capital, mobile wallets and things like that. But then coronavirus hit. While banks struggled in
0:36.4	the lockdowns, the fintech community flourished.
0:40.5	I believe that the digital economy is going to be what's going to transform Africa into more resilient, inclusive growth.
0:49.9	This COVID-19 has woken everyone up that this is the sector that everyone needs to focus on.
0:56.0	We asked the question, how crucial is the fintech sector in Africa's post-COVID economic recovery?
1:03.4	That's all in Business Daily from the BBC.
1:10.1	You know, the focus on the foundational work of payments and how much that enables so much on top of it
1:17.6	was something I learned in every single conversation I had, in every country that I had.
1:21.9	That's Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and the Mobile Payment Company Square, speaking at this year's Africa Fintech Summit.
1:29.7	All held virtually for the first time, it brought together entrepreneurs and investors
1:34.4	from the world of financial technology.
1:37.3	Dorsey was talking about his trip this time last year to Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.
1:43.9	The intention was simply to learn as much as I could. Um, last year to Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.
1:47.3	The intention was simply to learn as much as I could.
1:52.4	I made no plans to meet with media or the government.
1:58.6	I was focusing my energy on entrepreneurs and students from high schoolers to college kids.
2:03.6	And the goal was just to listen. And what I was incredibly amazed by and also inspired by was just the desire to solve really tangible problems in a
2:12.1	super creative way. So I just felt like this amazing energy of entrepreneurship and people doing whatever it took to make it work.
	...

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