Studies are needed to achieve better understanding of the environment in order to inform policy to ensure financial inclusion on a broad scale in Africa, Jean-Louis Ekra, President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), has said.
In a presentation to the Biannual Research Workshop of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) in Nairobi on 3 December, Mr. Ekra urged the consortium to mobilize resources from within and outside Africa for cutting edge research on all aspects of financial inclusion. It should also forge appropriate technical and financial partnerships to support research in the field.
He noted that although Africa had witnessed significant and sustained improvement in output over the past decade, that growth in gross domestic products had not sufficiently trickled down or translated into reduction of poverty and inequality.
According to him, the exclusion of many segments of the population from the continent’s recent growth in income and output could be traced to weak institutions, inadequate infrastructure, a misaligned low productive sector and lack of education.
Other factors included the low level of integration of actors in the informal sector and of the marginalised in national growth and development processes, lack of skills, lack of financial inclusion and absence of credible policies and programmes to ensure equity and protection of the marginalised and weak, he added.
Mr. Ekra called for effective coordination of activities such that public sector initiatives seeking to improve financial inclusion complemented and supplemented those of the private sector. That meant that governments should provide enabling macroeconomic environments for stakeholders to function effectively, and should design and implement robust and credible policies and programmes that were aimed at financial inclusion.
The private sector should also be motivated to develop innovative financial services and techniques to promote financial inclusion while ICT infrastructure should be developed to support delivery of branchless and mobile services for the unbanked, he added.
AERC, based in Nairobi, is a leader in policy-oriented economic research in Africa. Its biannual research workshops have become the largest gatherings of professional economists in sub-Saharan Africa, attracting around 200 researchers, academics, and policy makers at each event.