Partner Organization: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

Crowdfunding on the move: approaching P2P market regulation in East Africa

Posted on by TIMOTHYRADIER

In June 2016, the crowdfunding industry in East Africa met for the first time in Nairobi, Kenya. The indaba hosted over 60 leading platforms, regulators, donors, researchers and business service providers from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The event highlighted crowdfunding as a potential source of alternative finance in the region (summary here).

To maintain momentum, FSD Africa has partnered with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and Anjarwalla and Khanna to examine the existing regulatory and policy landscape that governs debt, equity, rewards and donation-based crowdfunding activity in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

According to Joe Huxley of FSD Africa: “Effective regulation and policy frameworks are critical. They provide the necessary rules and incentive structures to ensure the growth of crowdfunding markets in East Africa is carefully managed.”

The objectives of this work are to:

  1. Map out the existing regulatory and policy landscape for all crowdfunding models in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
  2. Determine a list of priority areas for regulatory and policy development to support crowdfunding market development in East Africa.
  3. Identify key lessons from the regulation and policymaking of leading crowdfunding markets.

To provide relevant insights for East Africathe  regulation and policy frameworks for crowdfunding markets in South Africa, the UK, New Zealand, the USA, Malaysia and India will also be examined. In addition, the research team will also interview and seek insights from selected crowdfunding platforms, practitioners and experts internationally.

According to Kieran Garvey of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance: “Throughout the project, we intended to work closely with regulators and industry practitioners in East Africa to foster common understanding of key crowdfunding risks and opportunities, and how to manage them appropriately.”

The research will be finalised and launched in September 2016.

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Further information:

To express your interest in this research or to participate, please email Kieran Garvey from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance “mailto:kjg44@cam.ac.uk”>kjg44@cam.ac.uk

For further information on the crowdfunding industry, please the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reports here: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/alternative-finance/publications/

Furthermore, the Africa and Middle East alternative finance benchmarking survey is currently underway. Please see further details here:

http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2016/06/87301-cambridge-centre-alternative-finance-launches-first-industry-study-middle-east-africa/

Crowdfunding platforms in Africa & the Middle East can access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/AltFin_MiddleEast_Africa

Crowdfunding in East Africa: regulation and policy for market development

FSD Africa, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and Anjarwalla and Khanna (A&K) collaborated to conduct a comparative assessment of the existing and evolving regulatory and policy landscape for crowdfunding in East Africa. This project outlines key priority areas necessary for regulatory and policy development in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Furthermore, while it draws upon insights and experience of the UK, USA, Malaysia, New Zealand and India with respect to regulatory and policy developments, the CCAF has also conducted research into other markets that provide valuable insights but are beyond the scope of this project.

Crowdfunding in East Africa: a regulator-led approach to market development

Posted on by 5iveafrica

Earlier in 2016, FSD Africa partnered with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and Anjarwalla & Khanna to conduct a regulatory review of different crowdfunding models across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. This project is now in its final stages and we look forward to publishing the report in full in December 2016. The CCAF will also be launching the inaugural Africa & Middle East Alternative Finance Report to coincide with this.  In anticipation, here are some key findings to whet your appetites.

Crowdfunding is fast taking shape across East Africa – particularly non-financial return based models such as rewards and donations crowdfunding. However, return-based equity and loan-based crowdfunding are really only starting to emerge. The recent Allied Crowds and FSD Africa report highlights these supply-side trends well. Such FinTech models require careful and considerate attention from financial regulators in East Africa to catalyse and harness their potential positive economic and social benefits whilst addressing systemic and consumer risks and challenges.

The upcoming report highlights some key priority regulatory and policy areas necessary for market development in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania while drawing on insights & experience from the UK, the USA, Malaysia, New Zealand and India.

Some of the key findings include the following:

  • There is no bespoke or specific crowdfunding regulation in East Africa or South Africa.
  • Non-financial return-based models dominate market activity in East Africa.
  • Financial return-based loan and equity models are only in the very earliest stages.
  • Loan- and equity-based models dominate total global activity, and account for the majority of market activity in more established markets, while donation- and rewards account for a small percentage of total market activity.

As for next steps, new crowdfunding regulations in East Africa are not recommended at the moment. Instead, other regulator-led, market development initiatives should be considered including:

  • A living database of all, existing, regulator-acknowledged platforms in East Africa.
  • Regulator engagement opportunities – to bring together the East African crowdfunding industry, practitioners, experts, potential funders and fundraisers.
  • Develop a regional regulatory laboratoryr ‘Sandbox’ to guide crowdfunding businesses through the relevant regulatory processes and requirements.
  • Regulators should encourage the East African crowdfunding platforms to build a regionally-focused industry association to undertake self-regulation and institute guidelines and principles to foster innovation while protecting investors.

The report goes into a great deal of depth covering markets in East Africa and other more established crowdfunding markets. It also provides useful guidance for crowdfunding platforms that are seeking to establish operations in these countries as well as hopefully encouraging platforms operating elsewhere to consider East Africa as a market to provide their innovative financial crowdfunding services.

We would like to thank the large number of contributors who have made this research possible including a wide array of regulators from the Capital Market Authorities, Central Banks and Communication Authorities of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania asl as the host of experts, crowdfunding platforms and other policymakers that have generously provided their expertise and insight.

The report will be made freely available in December 2016. Follow up, in-depth workshops led by CCAF will be conducted in January 2017 in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya with the various regulatory bodies. FSD Africa will stand ready to support regulators beyond this process.