The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and AFI are organizing the Annual African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) meetings, which will be held virtually on 9-12 August 2021.

The Annual African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) will be co hosted by the Bank of Tanzania. The leaders from AFI member institution in Africa will:

• Examine the regulatory approaches that have been taken or can be taken by policymakers in the Africa region to ensure that women, youth and MSMEs continue to have access to financial services even with the challenges posed by COVID-19.
• Discussion on partnerships, strategic cooperation and sustainability of program implementation.
• Discuss insights from the case studies conducted by AFI and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to showcase progress made in advancing women’s financial inclusion and reducing the gender financial inclusion gap in seven African countries.Provide guidance and orientations to the EGFIP for the finalization of knowledge products to be developed, which include.
  • Policy Framework on regulation and supervision of FinTech in Africa.
  • Case Study on Financial Literacy/Education Initiatives in Africa.
  • Special Report on Leveraging merchant payments to foster uptake of DFS in Africa.
• Discuss and agree on the next host of the AfPI meeting in 2022. 

As part of the AfPI meeting, several virtual events and training will be conducted from 9-12 August 2021:

• AFI’s Public Private Dialogue Training and Member Training on Contactless Payment Innovations to be held on 10 August 2021 from 09:00 to 12:00 UTC. The training will highlight key issues related to the expansion of digital payments infrastructure, services and uses through contactless payments.
• Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) on “Increasing Access to Financial Services for Vulnerable Groups; Women, MSMEs and Forcibly Displaced Persons”, to be held on 11 August 2021 from 09:00 to 10:15 UTC.
• Developed – Developing Country Dialogue on “Supervisory approaches and mechanisms to facilitate fintech innovations”, to be held on 11 August 2021 from 10:30 to 12:00 UTC. The dialogue aims to foster knowledge sharing between AFI members in Africa and their peers from developed countries on policy issues related to fintech supervision.
• African Financial Inclusion Policy (AfPI) Leaders Roundtable on “Innovative regulatory approaches to counter de-risking/exclusion of women, youth and MSME from accessing financial services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa” to be held on 12 August 2021 from 08:30 to 11:30 UTC.

Should you have any questions regarding the event, please reach us at afpievents@afi-global.org.