Financial Inclusion 2.0: From strategy to materialization
On the first day of the 4th edition of Fintech Week – Mozambique Fintech Week 2023, we followed the process of financial inclusion and how the strategies developed have been materializing, using fintechs, leveraging the economic growth of Mozambique.
On this first day of webinars, the need to extend the process to rural areas, investment, reducing technological illiteracy, investment in partnerships between organisations, as well as measures to increase the population’s identification documents and interface development, were highlighted.
Arlindo Lombe, Director of the Financial Inclusion Department of Banco de Moçambique: “ENIF and Regulatory Sandbox: The role of Fintechs in Mozambique”
In a context where part of the Mozambican population does not have access to the formal financial system, the Director of the Financial Inclusion Department of the Bank of Mozambique, assumed the “importance of creating alternatives, with the support and supervision of the institution he represents.”
Arlindo Lombe reinforces “the need for a transversal access of the national population to the financial product, extendable to the peripheral neighbourhoods and rural areas. In this sense, the organisation is committed to assisting in the construction of an inclusive financial system. “
To this end, the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion is based on several pillars, where access, security, transparency, strengthening of infrastructure and financial education are paramount.
The contribution to the financial learning process thus suggests a widening of access to the financial market which may maximise productivity and investment.
The Bank of Mozambique is also an important player in the regulation and implementation of Fintechs. This is where Sandbox fits in, with a view to reordering the new financial system that is developing, as well as in adjusting the product to the market.
“The aim is to increase the supply and diversification of the financial product and the market itself.” However, Arlindo Lombe highlighted as one of the main challenges the lack of identification documents of the population, fundamental to this process.
At the same time, he highlighted the “need to develop new interfaces that allow the validation of documents in real time, in order to streamline the procedure and ensure the confidence of the various entities involved.
Arlindo Lombe also highlighted “an auspicious conjuncture, where fintechs and regulatory entities stimulate and challenge each other, with benefit for the development and growth of the country, with special importance of young people.” Indeed, the official believes that “this stimulus and accompaniment will have repercussions in the development of new services, as well as in the attraction of new opportunities.”
António Souto – President of the Mozambican Association of Microfinance Operators (amomif) and Managing Director of Gapi spoke on the panel: “The role of microbanks and microfinance institutions in financial inclusion in rural areas”
Fintechs have definitely come to revolutionise the financial market and the routine of consumers. In this context, it is important to develop strategies demonstrating the strength and importance of fintechs in the market.
Fintechs offer simple mechanisms to access financial instruments that were once unavailable, thus opening doors for the emergence of new habits and behaviours, with a view to the development of the country and its affirmation in the global context.
António Souto “considers it fundamental to create a specific financial instrument to support joint partnerships between microfinance institutions and fintechs startups, privately managed, as an essential point included in the financial inclusion strategy.”
At the same time, he reiterated “the need to mobilise specific resources for this purpose, since the financial inclusion process can only be successful if there are adequate financing instruments and institutions to materialise this objective.”
The official also stressed “the need for proximity to rural communities, where technological literacy is still high.”
In this line of thought, he considers technologies “indispensable” being still “essential a partnership plan with local financial institutions.”
From a macroeconomic perspective, he pointed out that financial inclusion “boosts national credibility and consequent attraction of new partners and foreign investment.”
