Applications open for 2020 AFI Inclusive FinTech Showcase!

AFI is holding its second FinTech Showcase! Through the support and scaling up of quality financial services, world’s most innovative FinTechs and RegTechs will showcase transformative solutions that target low-income populations, contribute to effective COVID-19 crisis responses and help recovery.

Due to the current circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions of traveling, the 2020 AFI Inclusive FinTech Showcase will be held in the virtual space and gave a new wind to the one of the most unique Fintech events in the world, opening a new set of possibilities and opportunities for finalists.

Finalists will be given a dedicated slot between 26 and 28 October to deliver a virtual presentation, followed by a question and answer session with AFI’s membership. Winners will also have the opportunity to participate in topical dialogues with AFI’s membership of central banks and other financial regulatory institutions from more than 80 developing countries. But that is not all!

Finalists will also be featured in a special AFI report highlighting how their solutions contribute to financial inclusion and COVID-19 response. They will be invited to a special dialogue session with AFI members hosting the Pacific Regional Regulatory Sandbox, the world’s first regional sandbox; and have access to a mentoring and training on pitching to investors and presenting business models provided by the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT).

We are looking for innovative organizations in at least one of the following nine themes:

• Access to finance for youth entrepreneurs
• Supporting micro, small and medium enterprises through the COVID-19 crisis
• Digital payments in the crisis response
• Innovative cross border payments and remittances
• Financial health and lifetime planning
• Digital identity for disadvantaged groups
• Digital financial literacy
• Green digital inclusion
• RegTech or supervisory technology (SupTech) for central banks

These themes were selected based on AFI members’ financial inclusion commitments, policy goals and global priorities. Gender Inclusive Finance is as a cross-cutting thematic and all applicants are required to state how their solution contributes to women’s financial inclusion and closing the gender gap in access to formal financial services.

Find out more information here and apply by 30 August 2020.

The 2020 AFI Inclusive FinTech Showcase is supported through AFI’s Multi-Donor Financial Inclusion Policy Implementation Facility (MD-PIF), with participation of French Development Agency (AFD), the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and the Ministry of Finance of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The AFI FinTech Showcase is an initiative under the 2018 Sochi Accord with AFI’s membership committed to “create and participate in platforms for systemic dialogue and partnership among regulators and policymakers with FinTech companies and technology providers[1]”.

The first AFI FinTech Showcase was held at the 2019 Global Policy Forum (GPF) in Kigali, Rwanda, where 10 finalists got a chance to be part of the Showcase and to pitch their solutions to AFI members in a special plenary session. With agricultural insurance provider OKO winning the first place.