AFI member institution Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) announced its commitment to the Maya Declaration on 20 December 2012.
The bank will begin to pursue four immediate, short-term steps to enhance financial inclusion in Sierra Leone.
Specifically, BSL intends to:
- Develop a framework for collecting financial inclusion data before the close of 2013, and set up a database before the end of 2014 to monitor financial inclusion indicators.
- Modernize the national payments system to be launched at the end of the second quarter of 2013.
- Put in place a regulatory framework with specific guidelines on mobile financial services by mid-2013.
- Encourage private-sector driven rural financing penetration to increase access to finance through the establishment of additional Financial Services Associations (FSAs), Community Banks (CBs) and commercial bank branches (CBBs). The number of FSAs will increase from 42 to 65, CBs from 13 to 22 and CBBs from 87 to 100. The additional FSAs, CBs and CBBs are expected to increase financial outreach approximately 30 per cent by the end of 2014.
The bank also noted it is committed to interact with AFI to report on its progress toward the eradication of financial exclusion.
BSL becomes the 35th AFI member institution to make financial inclusion commitments under the Maya Declaration.