UNCDF and Sierra Leone FinTechs Discuss Investments & Partnerships for Innovation
For further information contact
Tenzin Keyzom Ngodup
Technical Specialist, Sierra Leone
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About MM4P
The MM4P programme launched in 2012 because UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) saw that the gains in digital financial services were not reaching the least developed countries. UNCDF was designed to provide the correct mix of financial, technical and policy support to build robust digital finance ecosystems that reaches low-income people. In doing so, it has helped accelerate growth in several countries.
For more information, visit mm4p.uncdf.org or follow @UNCDFMM4P and UNCDF MM4P.
About Sierra Leone FinTech Association
The Sierra Leone FinTech Association is an industry body for FinTech in Sierra Leone. It represents its members to the Regulator and other stakeholders. It was formed in 2017.
On 22th February 2018, The United Nations Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) MM4P programme hosted a ‘Strategic Coffee Morning’, a regular meet-up, with members of the Sierra Leone FinTech Association.
Sierra Leone is one of the least banked countries in the world, with 87% of the population without access to formal financial services. However, FinTechs are hoping to change that.
In 2017, UNCDF began its support as one of the early catalyzers of the FinTech space, conceptualizing the Sierra Leone FinTech Challenge and the Regulatory Sandbox framework, in partnership with the Bank of Sierra Leone and FSD Africa. Through the Challenge, three start-ups have received grants to develop and test their minimum viable products and will be granted the license by the Bank of Sierra Leone to operate through the region’s first Sandbox Framework for Financial Inclusion. UNCDF is also supporting a FinTech pilot iCommit, a digital lending solution for smallholder farmers to buy inputs before the planting season.
On Thursday at the Strategic Coffee Morning, the Sierra Leone FinTech Association’s members shared ambitious plans to build the digital rails in Sierra Leone, and start new pilots that test partnerships and innovations to improve end-users’ experience by focusing on their main pain-points.
“Coffee Morning is useful for my organization to hear new ideas and understand what the priorities are in the FinTech space” commented Richard Loat, Financial Inclusion Programme Lead, Branching Out: Financial Inclusion at the Margins at Comic Relief.
In Sierra Leone, customers’ pain points include travelling long distances to open a bank account, standing in long lines to withdraw money or make deposits, available financial services that are costly and disparate. And, for 87% of Sierra Leoneans, not having access to financial services at all.
In the Governor’s annual dinner remarks delivered earlier this month, Governor Patrick Conteh, said: “to encourage innovative ways of delivering financial services, we have taken steps to improve our regulatory framework to catch up with the growing complexity in financial technology. Given the youthful population and the high ownership of mobile phones, the future of the FinTech ecosystem in Sierra Leone should be exceedingly promising.”
Our partnership with the Sierra Leone FinTech Association is part of UNCDF’s goal to improve people’s lives by making financial services more accessible and relevant for Sierra Leone. UNCDF uses grants and technical expertise to help companies test and scale up financial inclusion initiatives that use partnerships to reach low-income people.
