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Africa Connected: Trends in Financial Services

Issue 2

Trends in the financial services sector is the theme of this edition of Africa Connected, our regular collection of in-depth articles on doing business in Africa.

We have Africa-wide articles on fintech, the liberalization of financial services and mobile money access; and jurisdiction specific pieces on Morocco, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, among others.

Please send us your feedback on Africa Connected, including topics you'd like to see covered in future editions.

In this issue

Fintech as the driver for growth in Africa’s banking sector

Access to financial services is a widely acknowledged tool for promoting credit creation and enhancing capital accumulation, and thereby increasing the levels of investment and economic activity. Fintech offers a transformational solution for Africa’s banking sector.

The liberalization of Financial Services in Africa

Africa is on the brink of enacting the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (the AfCFTA or the Agreement), a massive free-trade agreement that, if enacted, will liberalize trade and services across the continent.

Morocco's Crowdfunding Bill

Crowdfunding is a generic term referring to the raising of funds from a large number of individuals or entities to finance a project, through an online platform. The main purpose of this model is to support entrepreneurship, the digital and cultural economy, as well as social and humanitarian projects.

Mauritius: Africa's fintech hub

Mauritius, the tropical island of 2,040 square kilometers with a population of 1.3 million, has for over a quarter of a century been the preferred route for foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to India.

Mobile money in Africa: Access, regulations and risks

This article discusses how mobile money in Africa has opened access to the previously unbanked, and looks at the role regulators are playing to mitigate the money laundering risks associated with mobile money.

The inadvertent rise of digital transactions in Zimbabwe

This article will trace the history of currency use in Zimbabwe, tracking Zimbabwe’s movement from relative monetary stabilization following independence, to its crippling hyperinflation, abandonment of the Zimbabwean dollar, adoption of a multi-currency system and ultimately how the evolution of the currency regime has led to the rise of fintech methods of transacting on the back of a cashless society’s desperate need to adapt to debilitating shortages of cash in the economy.

Foreign investment and forex regulation in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, as in most other jurisdictions, one of the major issues for foreign investors is access to foreign exchange (forex). Because of the country’s negative trade balance, the availability of forex is highly restricted by laws and strictly regulated by the central bank, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

Immigration law and practice in the African oil and gas industry

A global economy requires multinationals to adopt a global business strategy, which invariably involves the need to transfer a firm’s most important asset – its people – in a fluid way across national borders. That is why managing the mobilization of expatriate employees in the most efficient way, including handling strategic immigration, labor and tax legal issues, is critical for the oil and gas industry.