The Alliance of Digital Finance Associations, AfricaNenda and Digital Frontiers are happy to announce their collaboration around instant and inclusive payment systems. All three organisations bring different strengths and focus to support the acceleration and growth of capacity and implementation of instant and inclusive payment systems.
Digital payments are a safe and efficient way to send and receive money or pay for goods and services. However, not every person has access to making payments digitally, and the payment services that are available, have often been set up as closed-loop systems, which means they are limited in the relevant services they can provide, particularly to low-income consumers. Instant and inclusive payment systems are a crucial component required to serve this consumer base and move towards financial inclusion. While on one hand these systems are designed to remove barriers and facilitate instant availability of funds for consumers, on the other, they facilitate economies of scale and competition for payment service providers, which contributes to the growth and expansion of the digital payments ecosystem and inclusive finance.
With clear mission alignment between organisations and complementing solutions, this tripartite collaboration was established to accelerate progress in establishing these instant and inclusive payment systems across Africa. The Alliance of Digital Finance Associations has a diverse and localised membership of in-country Digital Finance Associations who provide on the ground expertise and resource for partnerships, collaboration and implementation of projects and research. AfricaNenda is the Alliance’s first Partner Member and will be collaborating with the Alliance’s DFA members in promoting discussions, building capacity and in the implementation of instant and inclusive payment systems. Many of the Alliance’s DFA members were established through the Digital Frontier’s Community of Practice programme.
AfricaNenda supports the expansion of a broader pipeline of fundable, instant, and inclusive payment system projects. As a convening actor, AfricaNenda executes its vision by enhancing capacity building for African institutions and supporting African governments and organizations, facilitating pre-project support, knowledge sharing across countries and sectors, and by providing tools and training in digital payment systems.
Digital Frontiers developed and delivers the IIPS certified training programme. The IIPS programme covers the business, technological, and regulatory practices of IIPS and has produced more than 400 graduates from 95 countries. The program is producing a bench of IIPS experts available to shape and implement IIPS systems and is proud to see AfricaNenda utilising these experts as it has recently done in Zambia. Digital Frontiers also hosts a global community of around 15,000 digital finance professionals and convenes them through Community of Practices, webinars, a cultivated knowledge bank of resources and the League of Digital Finance Professionals, sharing knowledge, best practice and innovations in the digital finance industry. Digital Frontiers is also an Honorary Member of the Alliance of Digital Finance Associations.
This first initiative of this collaboration was a webinar discussing How Might We Accelerate Financial Inclusion by Promoting IIPS in Africa. Expect to see more joint webinars and events, knowledge sharing, and thought leadership over the coming months as these organisations align further to realise the success of this collaboration.
About:
Alliance of Digital Finance Associations
The Alliance of Digital Finance Associations unites the digital finance community by providing thought leadership, advocating for industry best practice, convening to exchange knowledge and catalysing innovation and collaboration. We support and strengthen our in-country Digital Finance Association (DFA) members to set local industry standards, be independent thought partners and deliver impact. Our mission is to make digital financial services accessible to all and to accelerate a sustainable digital economy.
AfricaNenda
AfricaNenda is an Africa-led team of experts committed to unlocking the potential of digital financial services for the financially excluded across the continent by accelerating the scale-up of instant and inclusive payments systems. Our approach is to provide public and private sector stakeholders with technical expertise and the capacity to reduce barriers to digital payments. We want to enable everybody in Africa to make digital transactions seamlessly and at a low cost wherever they are on the continent by 2030.
Digital Frontiers
Established in 2015, Digital Frontiers (DF) is a not-for-profit capacity building specialist headquartered in Africa and focused on building human capacity aligned with achieving the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. To date DF has built and implemented comprehensive capacity building programmes that support the acceleration of global initiatives in digital financial services and financial inclusion, gender equality, digital health and inclusive digital economies.
