India pledges $2m towards digital financial inclusion in Africa

By Delisha Fernandes

The Government of India has announced to contribute $2 million to the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), housed and managed by the African Development Bank, affirming its commitment to help break down barriers to the growth and uptake of digital financial solutions and accelerate financial inclusion in Africa.

Globally recognised for the success of its digital public payments system that has transformed governance, financial inclusion, and resilience for millions of people nationwide, India’s collaboration with ADFI enables the facility to learn from best practices and help scale up initiatives to meet the needs of financially excluded and underserved people in Africa.

Manisha Sinha, Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs and Principal ADFI Governing Council Member for India said “India’s pioneering role in digital financial services, extending financial inclusion to remote rural areas and creating infrastructure for digitisation of financial services, opens a significant opportunity for India to work within the ADFI partnership to share learning and expertise on digital public infrastructure to further digital financial inclusion across the continent.”

ADFI supports the African Development Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy focus on inclusive growth and the high 5 priority to improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. Its role also aligns with the Bank’s financial sector development department’s mandate to improve access to finance for the underserved. ADFI works to scale innovative digital financial solutions under the three broad strategic pillars of infrastructure, policies and regulations and product innovation.

Solomon Quaynor, Vice president for the Private Sector, Infrastructure, and Industrialisation African Development Bank, said, “We welcome the Government of India’s support of the catalytic role ADFI has been playing in accelerating greater access and usage of digital financial solutions and financial inclusion across the continent. We look forward to working together to add learning from India’s digital public infrastructure success story within our expanding portfolio of digital financial solutions initiatives to enhance the impact on greater economic empowerment, resilience, and growth across Africa.”