Country: Sub-Saharan Africa

FSD Africa signs on to United Nations – Principles for Sustainable Insuran

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We are proud to announce that we have recently signed on to United Nations Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI). UNEP’s Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) serve as a global framework for the insurance industry to address environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues—such as climate change, biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, pollution, and social inequality—as risk managers, insurers, and investors. 

Founded in 1992, UNEP’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) is a partnership between UNEP and the global financial sector to mobilise private sector finance for sustainable development. FSD Africa joins more than 360 members—banks, insurers, and investors—and over 100 supporting institutions—to help create a financial sector that serves people and the planet while delivering positive impacts.  

We have unique experience and understanding of African financial markets. Therefore, this membership will enable us to link and apply the global Principles for Sustainable Insurance to the African insurance industry. We will use our intellectual, operational, and capital capabilities to implement the four Principles across our spheres of influence to contribute to building resilient, inclusive, and sustainable communities and economies on a healthy planet.

As experts in managing long-term complex risks, the insurance industry has an important leadership role to play in helping the financial industry and society more generally sustainably navigate complex ESG risks. The UNEP PSI provides the principles and tools to enable the insurance industry to do just this. FSD Africa is thus committed to supporting the implementation of these principles in the African insurance industry as part of our commitment to creating a sustainable and resilient future.
Mark Napier – CEO, FSD Africa 

 

FSD Africa launches new partnership to deliver climate finance training in Africa

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Th first-of-its-kind partnership will equip Africa based policymakers, regulators, academics, and business leaders with the knowledge they need to secure financing and tackle the climate crisis.

NAIROBI, 29 June 2021: FSD Africa has launched a first-of-its-kind climate finance training programme, designed to expand access to funding for climate mitigation and adaptation on the continent.

Developed collaboratively with the National Treasury and Planning – Kenya, the training will be delivered through a coalition of global partners, including the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (ESAMI).

The training is focused on giving regional policymakers, regulators, academia, business leaders and financial market professions the knowledge needed to access climate finance from global sources and fast-track capital mobilisation for projects across Africa.

The training programme will target 100 trainees annually with the first cohort of 50 joining in August. A subsequent class will be held in September. Through a combination of knowledge building and targeted investment, FSD Africa aims to help firms, regulators, and government ministries in Africa and beyond to better identify, understand, manage, and monitor key climate and environmental risks and opportunities.

“This is an exciting opportunity to partner with decision-makers in financial markets from the public and private sectors. Committing to raising awareness for the development of appropriate policies and financial products is crucial if we are to reduce the cost and impact of climate change in the region.”
Mark Napier, CEO

Enrolment is open. To learn more visit https://esami-africa.org/climatefinance

The Kenya sovereign green bond second-party opinion

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Climate change has severe consequences over the short to medium term across multiple sectors, such as agriculture, industry, energy, water, trade and tourism. If we don’t act now, it will impede Kenya’s vision to be a nation that has a clean, secure and sustainable environment by 2030 under the country’s long-term development blueprint, Vision 2030.

Under the Social Pillar (environmental management) of this plan, the country plans to achieve the vision by intensifying conservation of strategic natural resources, applying measures to guard against the adverse effects of increased pollution and waste, insulating development from natural hazards; and building institutional capacity in environmental planning and governance. The issuance of the Kenya Sovereign Green Bond is one of the mechanisms that have been conceptualised as a plan to secure alternative green and sustainable funding sources to finance this vision, and also fund the budget deficit as part of the Post Covid-19- Green and Resilient Recovery plan to build back Better.

The Kenya Sovereign Green Bond framework articulates the country’s governance on the funds raised from the issuance of the bond, including use of proceeds, the process for project selection and evaluation, management of proceeds, and reporting progress and impact requirements. The framework has been developed in a consultative process, receiving input from government agencies and other stakeholders.

Proceeds of the Kenyan Sovereign Green Bond will be used to finance in whole or in part eligible green assets/projects that will be identified from the approved National Budget by parliament.

Transparency and disclosure on what is being financed by green bonds are important for investors. Credible, science-based, widely supported guidelines about what assets/projects qualify for green bonds helps investors make informed decisions about the green credentials of a bond. Evaluating the green features of underlying assets/projects may be referred to as verification or external review.

The phrase ‘external review’ refers to the independent assessment of the green credentials of a bond provided to the issuer by an external auditor (reviewer). Most external reviews can provide both a Second-Party Opinion (SPO) as well as a Verification (Assurance) Report against the Climate Bonds Standard.

External reviewers are generally engaged while or soon after the issuer has set up a Green Bond Framework and the review is normally made public before the roadshow. This is because the issuer can then use the independent review to promote the green credentials of the bond during the roadshow and it is now common practice for the review to accompany the bond’s information memorandum or prospectus when it is sent to potential investors.

Coding, tracking, monitoring and reporting of the utilisation of all climate finance and sovereign Green Bond proceeds during the fund allocation process until the completion of allocation of proceeds will be ongoing to ensure there is compliance with the Kenya Sovereign Green Bond Framework and any environmental and social risk assessments.

The National Treasury and Planning has obtained an independent second opinion from an appropriate provider to verify that the eligibility criteria, project selection, sovereign green bond proceeds allocation and management process, selected eligible green assets/projects are in line with international best practices on Green Bonds.

To guarantee that funds are properly attributed to the sovereign green bonds assets/projects as outlined in the framework, within the amounts set, the SPO will be published on the National Treasury and Planning website as well as all other websites globally. As per the green bond reporting guidelines, The National Treasury and Planning Ministry is expected to engage, annually, an independent third party to provide assurance on its annual use of proceeds and any impacts realised.

FSD Africa partnership aims to safeguard and leverage investment for small and medium-sized African businesses through the Africa Private Equity and Private Debt Programme

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The four co-operation agreements signed between FSD Africa and the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) and East Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EAVCA) and Southern Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) and the Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Nigeria (PEVCA) will help to ensure local expertise and tailored delivery for regional and country mandates.

NAIROBI, 24 February, 2021: FSD Africa today announces the signing of co-operation agreements with AVCA, EAVCA, SAVCA and PEVCA to coincide with the launch of the Africa Private Equity and Private Debt Programme. The programme is a new initiative to support the development of private capital markets in Africa as a complement to public capital markets. It will work to improve the long-term financing options available for businesses across key sectors in Africa’s economy, including healthcare, climate and agriculture.

 

Access to long-term finance has continued to be a challenge for small and medium-sized businesses across the continent. The economic impact of COVID-19 has only exacerbated the strain on Africa’s formal public markets aiming to provide long-term finance options to businesses desperately in need of capital. This alongside increased risk averseness by lending institutions has left few options for SMEs to access long term financing, in many cases resulting in business closures and job losses.

 

Through the Africa Private Equity and Private Debt Programme FSD Africa aims to leverage various tools including grants, technical assistance, advocacy and investment capital to support the growth of private capital markets. The partnership aims to support growth in a way that is uniquely African in character, tailored to the local context and delivering long term financing options for SMEs.

“Supporting the development of private equity and private debt markets in Africa will provide a boost to small and medium-sized businesses and local economies. We believe this will be greatly welcomed in the short term, ensuring that more jobs are saved, but it will also provide long-term benefits and improve access to capital.  Globally, there has been a secular shift towards private capital markets and it is appropriate that, as part of our response to COVID-19, we pay enough attention to the development of private markets, allowing for more local capital to be channelled into essential sectors including health, agriculture and climate.”
Mark Napier, CEO

Sustainable economic development in Africa depends on long-term finance

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Long-term finance is vital to driving Africa’s economic growth and development. Africa currently faces significant long-term finance gaps in the real and social sectors. FSD Africa estimates that the funding gap for SMEs, infrastructure, housing and agribusiness is over USD 300bn per year that is currently not being met.

Significant strides have been made during the past decade to enhance financial inclusion across Africa. These improvements in the outreach of financial markets were made possible due to the rapid uptake of digital financial services. The use of new delivery modes, such as agent banking and mobile phones, to send and receive payments has completely reformed the financial sector’s outreach to remote, previously excluded users. While still more at the experimental stage, digital platforms increasingly enable the provision of financial services relating to savings, credit and insurance.

However, although inclusion of a large segment of the population as senders and recipients of dal payments certainly serves to empower a previously marginalized segment of the population, it does little to promulgate the core function of financial markets. The purpose of financial intermediation is to enhance the economy’s productive potential by facilitating more optimal allocation of scarce resources. Channeling capital to the most needed uses will contribute to meeting investors risk/return objectives while also augmenting the growth potential of African economies.

When compared to the ‘inclusion revolution’ of the last 10-20 years, progress in enhancing access to investment finance resulting in greater productive employment has been disappointing. Increasing the availability of long-term finance will support investments in the housing, infrastructure and enterprise sectors thereby, directly creating job opportunities. In addition, such investment in social and real sector projects will enhance productivity, and thereby contribute to poverty alleviation through potential sustained increases iosable incomes.

One of the key challenges faced by investors has been the lack of good quality information and information asymmetry on long-term finance. Enhancing domestic capacity in the provision of long-term finance is crucial to filling the sizeable long-term financing gaps that apply almost universally to the African infrastructure, housing and enterprise sectors. Only by harnessing the contribution of long-term finance made available by the private sector will African countries effectively leverage the limited resources made available by the public sector and by donors. Often, African policymakers are confronted with challenges in balancing large and invariably well-justified expenditure demands with very limited fiscal resources, and as a result governments resort to domestic security issuance to fund their current expenditures.

As investors find it more attractive to put their money in ‘risk-free’ government-issued securities, increased issuance of such securities reduces the willingness of loinvestors (banks and institutional investors) to take part in funding risky productive investments. In order to stem this ‘crowding out’ of risk-capital by the government, a concerted effort is required to strengthen management of fiscal resources; to better utilize existing sources of long-term funding, as provided by banks and institutional investors; as well as to develop new sources of domestic funding. Over time capital market financing may come to play a larger role in filling the financing gap that exists in developing economies, provided the approach adopted is appropriately tailored to the development challenges faced by small, underdeveloped markets.

In conclusion, the objective of promoting sustainable economic growth and job creation through greater provision of long-term finance is crucial for Africa and its people. It is imperative that decision-makers, both policymakers, investors, development finance institutions as well as development partners embrace measures that will enhance productivvestment in support of Africa’s economic development.

The Long-Term Finance Initiative

We have collaborated with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance (CAHF) to support the Long-Term Finance Initiative, which has two main interventions:

  1. The Long-Term Finance Scoreboard:

The purpose of the Scoreboard is to assemble information about the sources and uses of long-term finance in Africa – whether provided by governments, donors, foreign direct investors or the domestic private sector. Previously, information and data on the availability of long-term finance in Africa has been scarce, spread across numerous sources, or simply unavailable. Thus, the intention of the long-term finance initiative is both to bring together existing sources of information as assembled by third parties and to augment the availability of data as regards long-term finance through collection of primary data. The Scoreboard also provides bench-marking that will facilitate comparison of how countries are performing vis-à-vis one another, thereby engendering interest and applying peer pressure among countryakeholders.

The purpose of the Scoreboard is to provide information to policy makers, private investors – both domestic and foreign investors – and development partners to support their decision-making as regards investments in Africa. The pilot website currently under development will be published in the coming months with a view to soliciting feedback and enhancing the scope and quality information provided.

Link to the live and online scoreboard: http://afr-ltf.com

  1. In-country diagnostics:

The purpose of in-country diagnostics is to identify effective ways to deepen local markets for long-term finance. By mobilizing local, private sources of finance and more effectively leveraging funding provided by the public sector, African economies will gradually be able to reduce reliance on donor funding and foreign direct investment. The diagnostic framework is based on a comprehensive approach to long-term finance that ranges from contributions of governments, donors, and private sector funding, whether provided by local or foreign investors, to funding intermediated by banks and capital markets, and other sources of private finance, such as private equity or venture capital.

The intention is that country diagnostics will inform country reform programs and create momentum for dialogue among key public and private sector stakeholders, thereby enhancing the focus and effectiveness of implementation efforts.,

Value for money approach for the FSD network

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Financial Sector Deepening programmes (FSDs) face increasing pressure to show that they provide value for money (VfM). This includes demonstrating that they are delivering their interventions efficiently and achieving their desired development impact. To achieve this, strengthening of internal procurement processes, as well as monitoring and results measurement (MRM) approaches, continue to be key areas of focus.

With these objectives in mind, FSD Africa commissioned the development of a new VfM approach, as a resource for the FSD Network – a group of FSD programmes including eight national programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and two regional programmes (FinMark Trust in Southern Africa, and FSD Africa).

The approach was developed by Oxford Policy Management (OPM) and Julian King & Associates, building on OPM’s approach to assessing VFM. This approach treats VfM as an evaluative question about how well resources are being used, and whether the resource use is justified. Addressing an evaluative question requires more than just indicators – it requires judgements to be made, supported by evidence and logical argument.

The VfM approach emphasises evaluative reasoning as a way to make robust judgements, transparently and on an agreed basis. It involves developing definitions of good performance and VfM, which are agreed in advance of the VfM assessment. The definitions include criteria (aspects of performance) and standards (levels of performance) developed specifically for the FSD context. Criteria and standards provide a systematic framework to ensure the VfM assessment is aligned with an FSD programme’s theory of change, collects and analyses the right evidence, draws sound conclusions, and tells a clear performance story.

FSD programmes are complex and their performance depends not just on quantitative indicators of delivery (such as number of projects completed) but also on the quality of implementation (e.g. sound adaptive management to respond to a changing environment and to act on emergent opportunities and learning). A mix of evidence is necessary to support well-informed, nuanced judgements about FSD performance and VfM.

Indicators play an important role in measuring some aspects of FSD performance. But restricting a VfM assessment to indicators alone would run the risk of missing important information about the quality of delivery and outcomes – for example, focusing on aspects of performance that are easy to measure at the expense of aspects that are important but difficult to quantify.

Therefore, the new VfM approach accommodates a mix of indicators and narrative evidence. The approach seeks to maximise use of rigorous evidence from existing MRM frameworks. It is aligned with the FSD Network’s MRM frameworncluding  Impact-Oriented Measurement  (IOM) Guidance (on how FSDs can better measure their contributions to changes in the financial markets they seek to influence), and the FSD Compendium of Indicators (setting out a common theory of change and related measurement framework that form the basis of common indicators to track FSD outcomes and impact).

The VfM approach is designed to support accountability as well as reflection, learning and performance improvement across the FSD network. It can also be used to systematically identify areas where MRM systems can be improved, to provide better evidence and benchmarking of sound resource management, delivery, outcomes and impacts.

The VfM approach is detailed in our new VfM Framework and Guide. The VfM Framework explains the conceptual design and rationale for the approach. The Guide sets out a practical, user-friendly, step-by-step approach for design, assessment and reporting on VfM. These documents will support a consistent approach to VfM assessment and reporting across the FSD Network, while retaining sufficient flexibility to reflect differences in context.

These frameworks have undergone rigorous development and testing over the past 18 months. As detailed within the documents, this has included a consultative process with FSDs and donor agencies, a staged approach to framework development with input from all FSDs, a full-day workshop with FSD MRM teams (at the FSD Conference in Livingstone, Zambia, November 2017), and piloting of the approach during 2018 with FSD Moçambique, FSD Uganda, Access to Finance Rwanda, and FSD Africa.

It is hoped that FSDs will use this comprehensive VfM assessment approach to support accountability, learning, improvement, and making investment decisions. The FSD MRM Working Group serves as an ideal community of practice to support effective and consistent application of the approach.

Empowering women through savings groups

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“Our economies are built on the back of women’s unpaid labour at home”

– Melinda Gates

Empowering women means, at its core, providing women with strength and confidence to control their lives, and knowledge of their own rights so that they can actively engage in their communities.

Increasing women’s access to financial services allows them to have better control over financial resources and improves independence and mobility. It also fosters greater investments in income-generating activities, and the ability to make decisions that serve the needs of women and their families. In short – financial inclusion empowers women.

But how do women, especially those living in rural areas, access financial services?

Savings groups (SGs) and access to finance

SGs are easily accessible groups of people who get together regularly to save money and borrow from the group savings, if needed, according to rules established by the group.

Programmes that promote SGs typically focus on women’s economic empowerment and measure change through quantitative indicators of economic well-being. This is mainly because SGs enable the accumulation of funds which can be used as capital for micro-enterprises and for such programmes, the quantification of results is easier. This approach, however, provides a limited understanding of the role of SGs in affecting various dimensions of women’s empowerment, such as social, political and reproductive empowerment.

The SEEP network, in partnership with FSD Africa and Nathan Associates, commissioned a savings group research across sub Saharan Africa. The aim of the research was to highlight good practices in the design and monitoring of Savings Group programmes for women’s empowerment outcomes. The research also led to the development of a monitoring tool for the measurement of the various dimensions of women’s empowerment within SGs.

Savings groups and women’s empowerment

The research built upon pre-existing frameworks and for the first time captured women’s empowerment in the specific context of SGs.

In particular, seven ‘domains’ or clusters of core areas within which empowerment can be measured have been identified. These are i) Economic independence; ii) Confidence and self-worth; iii) Decision-making; iv) Voice and leadership; v) Time use; vi) Mobility; vii) Health.

Through these domains, SGs market actors can design SGs interventions with sight of the empowerment impacts they aim to achieve. They can also observe the likelihood of empowerment outcomes and impacts across different SGs intervention types:

i) Savings Groups only interventions, for example, a development institution working on financial inclusion could adopt an SGs only approach to enable target groups to access appropriate financial services from formal financial institutions. For these kinds of interventions, empowerment impacts are strongly observed in 2 out of the 7 domains, economic independence and confidence and self-worth. Through this type of intervention, it was observed that participants gained access to appropriate financial services, enhanced financial management skills, expanded social and support networks. Fewer impacts on mobility, time-use and health were observed.

ii) Savings Groups in combination with other economic development activities, for example, a Savings Group initiative could be combined with financial education, technical or vocational training, or specific income generating activities. Strong empowerment impacts are observed for such interventions for 3 out of the 7 domains, that is, economic independence, confidence and self-worth and decision-making. Improved decision-making is observed through participants engaging in employment or self-employment and demonstrating abilities in influencing relevant decisions in their homes and communities.

iii) Savings Groups within other integrated programming i.e. programming that is aimed at weeding out harmful social norms & inequalities: for example, a Savings Group initiative could be integrated with gender programming that challenges harmful social norms such as domestic violence, female genital mutilation, negative attitudes to family planning/reproductive health, etc. The programming approach could combine SGs with education and capacity building for members accompanied by gender dialogue sessions, engaging members and their spouses, community and religious leaders.

For such interventions, impacts are strongly observed within 5 of the 7 domains: economic independence, confidence and self-worth, decision-making, voice and leadership and health. Empowerment demonstrated by leadership is observed through changes in gender norms, especially within women’s economic participation; empowerment in health through increased and improved investments in maternal, neonatal and child health or improved attitudes and norms with respect to reproductive and sexual rights. For empowerment demonstrated by time use, impacts are observed through more equitable allocation of unpaid household labour.

An example of an impactful SGs within an integrated programming intervention (i.e. intervention option iii), is the ‘Towards Economic and Sexual Reproductive Health Outcomes for Adolescent’ girls (TESFA) project under CARE International in Ethiopia. Girls within SGs provided with sexual and reproductive health (SRH) training demonstrated both economic and health related gains from programme participation. These were observed through, increased SRH knowledge, improved communication on SRH, decreased levels of gender-based violence, improved mental health, increased social support and gender attitudes.

A systematic approach to analyzing women’s empowerment

Saving Groups create economic independence for women but in order to analyze their contribution to other domains of empowerment, there is need for a systematic design of a monitoring and results measurement approach. Through this research, a toolkit that provides guidelines as to how to create an evidence-based theory of change was developed. Drawing from existing frameworks economic empowerment and existing data, the toolkit proposes a more holistic framework for SGs, based on the seven domains of empowerment discussed above. It also provides some standardized indicators to improve the comparability and aggregation of results across projects and organizations.

For more information and application of the WEE toolkit click here.

 

Central bank digital currency: friend or foe of mobile money in sub-Saharan Africa?

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Many claim that Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), formally known as Digital Fiat Currency, can have many benefits for financial inclusion and has the potential to impact mobile money. But can CBDC overcome the challenges that current mobile money providers and consumers face?

First things first; what is “Central Bank Digital Currency”. Simply put, CBDC is a digital representation of physical cash. As its digital alternative, CBDC is interchangeable with physical cash on a one-to-one basis as valid legal tender, and adopts all three of cash’s key features: a unit of account; a store of value; and a universally accepted means of exchange between transacting parties. The distinction between CBDC and private cryptocurrencies are summarised below.

Figure 1. Digital Fiat Currency compared to Private Cryptocurrencies

Source: Cenfri, 2018

So, what’s the relevance of CBDC to financial inclusion?

CBDC has the potential to digitise the entire payments value chain, from the first to the last mile in a more cost-effective and efficient way. Cenfri’s 2018 report “The benefits and potential risks of digital fiat currencies” finds that CBDC, unlike cryptocurrencies, can promote adoption through network effects because of the key features that is shares with cash. CBDC’s speed, efficiency and safety (being backed by the Central Bank) introduces much needed trust in digital payment mechanism, something that is lacking in private cryptocurrencies and mobile money. And trust is critical where money is involved. Trust means that CBDC could eventually be adopted along the entire value chain (like cash) and hence could promote financial inclusion at all levels of society.

But what about mobile money specifically?

Mobile money may be a leader in “banking the unbanked” but the phenomenon still faces obstacles that undermine its uptake and use, as shown in the figure below.

Figure 2. Key supply and demand cost drivers of mobile money in SSA

Source: Cenfri 2019, based on data from various literature sources

The application of retail CBDC to mobile money can foster greaterinteroperability, improve payment efficiency, facilitate cost-saving gains and reduce key payment risks typically associated with mobile money. CBDC can also enable trust in mobile financial services due to its safety and the way in which its speed eases liquidity constraints of mobile-money agents. CBDC also eliminates the need for unnecessary third-party intermediaries and so streamlines payment clearance at the same time as enabling true interoperability.

How about the downsides of CBDC?

If CBDC is not implemented appropriately it could exacerbate contextual inequalities along the lines of digital, financial and economic disparities between population segments and also intensify the complexity of mobile money. For example, if not everyone has a mobile phone then only those that do can access CBDC; and if only certain areas have network coverage then only those in those areas can access CBDC; and so on. CBDC could threaten the intermediation role of traditional deposit-taking. CBDC could also exacerbate poor uptake of mobile money (e.g. due to illiteracy) simply because of CBDC’s (perceived) complexity. If everywhere you can only pay in CBDC then it may make the gap between illiterate and literate users even wider. The more vulnerable segments of the population, as primary unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) customers, could also be at greatest risk of identity fraud.

So what can be done to avoid these risks?

CBDC can bring maximum benefits to mobile money and financial inclusion if it meets certain pre-conditions. The basic principles to avoid these risks lie with governments and the enabling financial environment they create in their respective countries. Governments need to ensure appropriate and effective legislation and anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism regulation, as well as the implementation of robust consumer protection laws and national cyber-security defences. We know that that some developing economies lack these key laws – or lack the ability to uphold the legislation, even if it does exist. Through our Risk, Remittances and Integrity Programme, FSD Africa is partnering with Cenfri to combat these challenges by helping countries implement appropriate regulation that enables low-cost, efficient, domestic and cross-border payments to enable inclusive financial systems to operate at scale, and positively impact broader economic development.

It’s clear mobile money presents a significant use case for CBDC in the drive towards financial inclusion, but not without risks. If governments, supported by development partners, address these concerns, the impact of CBDC on mobile money could not only be positive, but could also contribute to significantly greater financial inclusion and better economic integration altogether.

You can delve deeper into the role of CBDC in delivering financial services to the unbanked and CBDC’s applicability to mobile money by downloading Cenfri’s latest report “Central Bank Digital Currency and its use cases for financial inclusion; a case for mobile money”. 

Trust in technology to unlock Africa’s remittances potential

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The small bundles of cash loved ones send home might not seem much, but their impact on lives and economies is significant. For families, these regular lifelines help pay for health, education and living expenses. And, as more and more people go abroad to work, remittances have grown to become a significant part of the sub-Saharan African economy, making up 4.3 per cent of the continent’s gross domestic product. To put this in money terms, in 2017, sub-Saharan Africa received $42 billion in foreign direct investment and $25 billion in aid, compared to $42 billion in remittances.

With most remittances being sent from the UK in cash there is a strong drive to use technology to address some of the main challenges. This makes sense, with many online remittance providers offering transparency, security and convenience at significantly lower prices.

Recent focus group research, ‘Moving Money and Mindsets’, indicated that in 2016, 90 per cent of remittances sent by the research participants from the UK were being paid in cash at an agent. Two years later, half of the participants had moved to an online remittance service. Whilst not nationally representative, the groups demonstrate that people are changing the way they send cash home.

This is encouraging. Yet, despite the pricing and efficiency benefits, there are still challenges that digital money transfer operators need to overcome such as: A lack of understanding, problems with registering for a service, scepticism about online services and a lack of personal interaction with the sender. All of these issues could be summed up by one word: Trust. Trusted cash pay-out networks, trusted brands and trusted service. It’s human nature: When you are sending your hard-earned cash – trust matters.

Many traditional cash-based services that people use to send money home are known and trusted; they are established and have a track-record of delivering. Building trust takes sustained, consistent effort over a long period of time. It means getting it right every time.

Moving people to use digital services is not purely down to the actions of money transfer services. Authorities have responsibilities too. An important step is to provide some of the basic infrastructure that is still lacking in some countries. When sending money to countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone, people use cash as there are limited digital alternatives for receiving remittances, especially in rural areas. Most people in these countries still don’t have access to bank accounts or mobile money.

But providing basic infrastructure is not the only step: We also need to build trust in the system. A good example of how to do this is M-pesa in Kenya. Part of M-pesa’s success can be attributed to the focus on gaining the trust of consumers from day one, beginning with domestic transactions and now used for receipt of international remittances. Leveraging the Safaricom brand, training agents to provide a consistent customer experience, and ensuring there was transparency around transactions gave people confidence to try the system. Today it is hard to remember how we transacted without it.

Through investments in marketing and infrastructure, the same could be the case for online remittances. We have the tools to help make sending money home cheaper and easier, now is the time to invest in building trust to get people to use them. One approach could be identifying a group of influencers within migrant circles to communicate the benefits – convenience, safety, and cost – of using online services.

Just as M-pesa transformed the way we transact; digital tools have the potential to change the way people send money home. Building trust is mission critical when it comes to unlocking the full potential of the remittance economy. A penny saved is a penny earned, by making it cheaper to send money home we can make the impact of the penny go further.

originally published in The East African, 1 Jun 2019

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A place to call my own: the significance of housing for women

Posted on by TIMOTHYRADIER

Nearly one in four households in Africa are headed by women, reaching 41% in Zimbabwe, 36% in Kenya and 35% in Liberia according to the World Bank. Female-headed households have been increasing across all countries, globally. So, as well as considering the broader challenges and opportunities affordable housing creates for everyone, we should also ask: what’s the significance of housing specifically for women?

The consequences of good housing are far-reaching: the quality of housing impacts on its residents’ health and safety, their ability to function as productive members of society, and their sense of well-being in their community. Good housing contributes to good health outcomes, provides protection from the elements and supports a family’s needs throughout its life cycle.  These factors have a particular impact on women. In many low-income households across Africa, whether in rural areas or in the cities, the home is still the woman’s domain.  The quality of the living environment impacts partn her day-to-day experiences and capacities to meet the needs of all who depend upon her. It is for this reason that we know that women are especially keen on home improvements and often the drivers of such initiatives within their households.

Increasingly, and especially in high-unemployment contexts, the income-earning potential of housing is also being recognised. Many women identify entrepreneurial opportunities through their housing, using their homes as their business premises, running a shop on site, or working remotely. Some are renting out one or two rooms, or a structure in the backyard (see our video interviews with two female clients of Sofala’s i-build home loans project) contributing to household income. Recent research finds that poverty falls faster, and living standards rise faster, in female-headed households.

A home and its surroundings also affect a woman’s identity and self-respect. This social dimension, while less tangible, is nevertheless hugely significant. A home offers long- and short-term security for women as household members, especially those that are unmarried. Secure housing provides safe shelter and protection from homelessness after divorce, widowhood, job loss or other challenging circumstances. A key development worth noting has been that all government subsidised homes in South Africa are now registered in the names of both spouses. In short, a secure home enables more choices and more individual freedom. Having “a place to call my own” makes it possible for a woman to run her own household, that is, to become the head of the household, providing a degree of security to ride out and rebound from life’s uncertainties, such as temporary unemployment or illness.

Another impspect of home ownership is access to collateral, which enables women to access financial services and accelerate their earning potential. A savings account in a woman’s name offers a form of security and independence: a safe place to store and protect earnings. Women make better borrowers because they know that their ability to improve the home in the future depends on the reputation they develop in managing a particular loan. Women are therefore a very important part of the housing solution, and should be understood as such, by policy makers, project implementers, and service providers. In cases where women do not have title deeds for their home, banks are revolutionising the way they lend for home construction. For example, in Kenya – a country with a population of 50 million, but less than 30,000 mortgages – the Kenya Women Microfinance Bank (KWFT) has created a new loan product called “Nyumba Smart” (“smart home”). Using flexible collateral, the loans provide female customers with up to $10,000, repayable over three years, for the construction of all or part of a house.

Despite this progress, over 300 million women live in African countries where cultural norms prevent equal property rights, even when there are formal, equitable property laws ouragingly, innovative technology-based tools are helping to overcome this barrier. For example, the social enterprise, Map Kibera is working on an open-source mapping platform for Nairobi’s largest slum. The objective is to give inhabitants an informal claim to their land, to lobby for services and to act as “evidence” in negotiations with municipal governments, which may otherwise bulldoze settlements with no legal title without warning.

At FSD Africa, we believe housing plays a crucial role in economic development and poverty reduction, not least for women. That is why we have partnered with the “http://housingfinanceafrica.org/”>Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) to promote investment in affordable housing and housing finance across Africa; we have also invested in Sofala Capital, which includes Zambian Home Loans Limited and iBuild Home Loans Pty Limited as part of its group of companies.  By strengthening Sofala’s balance sheet, we are enabling these companies to achieve scale with their innovative housing finance product offerin