His Excellency Faure Gnassingbé, the President of Togo has launched the second edition of the two-day Africa Financial Industry Summit (AFIS) event being held in Lomé.
The summit is to allow the 600 leaders of the African continent to contribute to the continent’s economic recovery, through the development of a competitive, innovative, inclusive, and sustainable financial industry.
The Summit which is taking place in Lomé was arranged to give opportunity to the central bank governors (of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, the BCEAO, etc.), ministers, regulators, bankers, CEOs of Fintechs, banks, Insurance companies (such as Equity Group, Ecobank, BOA Group, SANLAM, NSIA, etc.), and financial actors to deliberate on several topics such as agricultural finance, exchange interconnection, mobile money, climate finance, AfCFTA, cryptocurrencies, central bank digital currencies, and Basel III issues, among others.
Private and Public leaders participating in the Summit are also expected to share views on the best practices to accelerate financial inclusion on the continent, accelerate the emergence of a pan-African financial services market as well as contribute to the development of the regulatory, supervisory, and compliance policies of financial innovation.
Ensure Financial Inclusion In African’s Economic Recovery
According to the organizers of the event which is sponsored by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), they stated that, AFIS should allow African industry leaders to contribute to the continent’s economic recovery through the development of a competitive, innovative, inclusive, and sustainable financial industry.
Not limited to that, the aim is to also ensure that States surround businesses with a favourable environment, in which the private sector would be at the heart of the dynamic growth driven by the industry and services, International Finance Corporation (IFC) stated.
Mr Amir Ben Yamed, Director of Jeune Afrique Media Group also disclosed that, seeking financial sovereignty must be a priority for Africa.
“I believe the continent should put its financial industry under the international spotlight.”
Mr Amir Ben Yamed
The Vice President of International Finance Corporation, Sergio Pimenta advised that, African banks must put up their maximum best to take over the financing of African trade, in a context where the latter has an annual deficit of nearly $90 billion.
H. E Faure Gnassingbé concluded by saying the future of African finance will be built through a tight collaboration between the governments and the private sector, especially given the current global crises; the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic, notably.
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