South Africa will host the 6th African Microfinance Conference on 12-15 August 2013 at the Durban International Convention Centre.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Financial Inclusion: From Policy to Practice”. The conference will focus on what practical steps need to be taken to expand financial inclusion. The motivation behind the theme is to address the tremendous challenges in the uptake of financial services. It will focus on the practical implementation of policy to design and build value propositions that speak to the needs of poor and low-income people.

There are also five sub-themes, including agricultural finance, housing finance, partnerships towards financial inclusion, new business models that will promote inclusion and the consistent challenge, suitable policy and regulation to enable financial inclusion. According to Prof. Gerhard Coetzee, of the Centre of Inclusive Banking at the University of Pretoria and the convener of the conference, sub-themes have been designed to challenge all attendees, especially the focus on partnerships and new business models towards better financial inclusion.