Bank of Ghana elected Vice Chair of AfPI

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has been elected as the African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI) Vice Chair.

After two years, Ghana will take over the position of AfPI Vice-Chair, while Seychelles takes over as AfPI Chair.

Central Bank of Seychelles took over as the Chair of AFI’s African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI)

Read full articlefrom the Bank of Tanzania.

Prof. Florens D.M.A Luoga Governor Bank of Tanzania handed over the post to his Seychelles counterpart Governor Caroline Abel on 23 June during AfPI Leaders’ roundtable in Arusha, Tanzania. Governor Abel becomes the first woman to Chair an AFI regional initiative.

Expressing appreciation and honor given to him and cooperation he enjoyed with AFI Management Unit and from members of the African Financial Inclusion Policy Initiative (AfPI), Professor Luoga welcomed Governor Abel as the new chair during the closed AfPI Leaders’ Discussion.

Thanking Prof Luoga and the Bank of Tanzania for the leadership during the past two challenging years of the global COVID-19 pandemic, AFI Executive Director Dr. Alfred Hannig praised collaboration and engagement both in the Africa region and the global network.

“This week’s meetings were a testimonial to what was possible with guidance and leadership of BoT and Professor Luoga”, Dr. Hannig said before inviting the new chair to give her remarks.

Honored and humbled about the new role for her institution, Governor Abel assumed the post noting that this “noble task of fostering parentships and exchanging experiences would further take the network to new heights and continue to play a critical role in peer learning on innovative financial inclusion policies across the African continent”.

She emphasized that diversity in both AFI’s biggest regional initiative and the global network, presents ample opportunities to gain new perspectives and strengthen efforts to move forward.

“Our journey to enhance financial inclusion is ongoing. We have to adapt to changing realities to enhance financial services for all and achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth”, Seychelles Governor said in her acceptance remarks.

Governor Abel’s post of the AfPI Chair reflects progress made in gender and women inclusive finance in the network as part of work under the Denerau Action Plan (DAP).

Overwhelmingly endorsed by the network in 2016, the DAP targets to accelerate women’s financial inclusion by halving the financial inclusion gender gap across AFI member jurisdictions by 2021, strengthen women’s leadership and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 5 on gender equality.

The Leaders also approved EGFIP’s new composition, which now includes Bank of Namibia as New Chair, taking over from Bank Al Maghrib, while the Bank of Tanzania has been elected as the Vice Chair.

Meanwhile, experts identified four key emerging policy areas to work on: consumer protection for digital financial services, digital financial literacy, inclusive fintech, fintech and data to map the impact of fintech on financial inclusion in the region.

The AfPI Leaders’ Roundtable will be held at the Island of Seychelles in 2023.