REBRANDING AFRICA FORUM 2023
9th edition
Brussels – October 20 and 21, 2023
The theme is “Revolution in African financial systems, blending authenticity and modernity: Pathways to financial inclusion”
REBRANDING AFRICA FORUM 2023
9th edition
Brussels – October 20 and 21, 2023
The theme is “Revolution in African financial systems, blending authenticity and modernity: Pathways to financial inclusion”
The theme selection is in line with the extraordinary development of African financial systems over the past twenty years, in the wake of the digital revolution that has irradiated the continent since then, generating with it a real financial revolution.
As much as Africa has made a technological leap by going from the virtual absence of fixed telephony to the mobile telephone revolution, it is in fact on the way to achieving another, that of the deficit of banking institutions and their absence in rural areas, to online banking across the continent.
From repression to financial liberalization
Still under both the heavy-handed control by public banking institutions and restrictive regulation during the 1980s that materialized through the repression of microfinance and informal finance, African financial systems were transformed by a wave of financial liberalization, improvements in the regulatory and institutional level and by globalization.
Now the goal consists in mobilizing domestic financial resources as much as possible, by articulating formal, semi-formal and informal finance in the best possible way in order to stimulate Africa’s development. Since then, most countries on the continent have increasingly developed and stable financial systems.
Africa is also a pioneer, on a global scale, in terms of expanding financial systems, and is now a true universal laboratory for studies on financial inclusion.The inexorable development of financial technologies (fintech) is accelerating this process of inclusion and opening the way to countless investment and development opportunities for Africa.
In 2021, increase of
894%
fundraising by start-ups operating in the field of financial technologies in sub-Saharan Africa,
(Mastercard, Oct 2022)
In 2020, Africa represented
46%
new accounts registered worldwide
(Global Findex)
Record level of more than
2 billion
dollars in 2021 (200% increase compared to 2020) of investments by African companies in the fintech sector
(FinTech Global 2022)
The AfCFTA represents a potential single market for
300 billion
dollars for logistics players
(Hec Stories, op.cit.)
Most Africans and their leaders have acknowledged the urge to create an environment that will allow digital revolution, after missing previous industrial revolutions that have set Africa so far behind.
However, many challenges remain to be met to make the most of Africa’s immense financial potential.
Keeping in mind these challenges, these concerns and indications, but also and more so the financial potential of Africa and the immense opportunities offered by the changes currently taking place there, that financial players and other experts interested in Africa will meet on October 20 and 21, 2023 in Brussels, for the ninth edition of the Rebranding Africa Forum.