How the finance sector can drive Africa’s economic growth

Johannesburg, South Africa (Capital Markets in Africa) — The rise of Africa’s financial services sector in recent years has been remarkable. From a relatively underexplored and underinvested sector a mere decade ago, today, this sector is considered to be one of the continent’s brightest prospects. This is due to the fact that financial sector development has been on the agenda of African policymakers for some time now as (aside from profitable opportunities for investors) continued development of this sector has the potential to transform the lives of millions of people across the continent. For instance, access to credit by the SME/the more informal businesses has the ability to provide jobs, create safety networks and, ultimately play a role in reducing poverty.

With this in mind, various policy reforms over the past decade have contributed to an environment more conducive to financial sector development and, where Governments have made progress in introducing much needed regulatory frameworks, information systems and regulatory institutions – all aimed at enabling and facilitating further development of this sector.

The transformation, however, is not something that will happen overnight, in a week, a month or a year. And, while most African countries still lag behind the rest of the world in the adoption of banking and insurance products, this creates substantial scope for continued future development. Thus offering profitable opportunities for investors who are willing to take on some risk and are innovative – as their success will depend of their ability to devise new products, or new ways to deliver their product offering that suits the nature of both the targeted markets and consumers therein, across the African continent.

To scope the current state of the FS sector in Africa, below I have outlined highlights for the banking and insurance industries in these sectors, alike.

Read more: How the finance sector can drive Africa’s economic growth – Agenda – The World Economic Forum