Financial Services and E-Commerce Workshop

The date for this workshop still has to be decided

Organizers: Saliya Kanathigoda (GIZ) 

Speaker and projects: 

• Wolfram Zunzer (GIZ Africa) - Digital Platform WIDU 
• Yiannis Theodorou (GSMA)

Financial technology has been acting as a driving force of Africa’s technology ecosystem by attracting hundreds of millions in venture capital as well as over a billion dollars in acquisition value. While fintech is now seeing third or four generation startups being founded by former employees of companies that are now market leaders in their verticals, such as interswitch, Flutterwave, and Paga. While consumer finance such as personal finance, digital banking, loans, and remittances have been growing since early in the past decade, the recent years
have seen an increase in interest in B2B platforms, especially those enabling merchants to trade and digitise their work. Financial technology companies are now increasingly looking at integrating their services with other sectors.

Since the beginning of COVID-19, digital platforms for payments and business management have seen a surge in demand which has followed the need for remote interaction. In a continent where cash remains king, readily available digital financial services have proven pivotal in allowing businesses to operate without significant  setbacks.