By CultureBanx Team
- Africa’s current GDP stands at about $1.6T
- 21% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa have a mobile money account
Sub-Saharan Africa is getting ready to experience a major level up thanks to its burgeoning fintech sector. Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD), a development-finance organization found that the continent’s economic output in fintech will add $150 billion by 2022 to its gross domestic product (GDP).
Why This Matters: Africa’s mobile first economy plays a big role in why the fintech space is going to have such a huge impact on their overall GDP, which according to the International Monetary Fund currently stands at about $1.6 trillion. The World Bank’s Global Findex Data found that roughly 21% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa have a mobile money account. Since 2014, the amount of people with these accounts has nearly doubled and is the highest of any region in the world.
By 2019, at least 1.5 million women will have access to formal finance services
The fintech sector employs about three million people directly and indirectly in the region. By 2019, at least 1.5 million women will have access to formal finance services. FSD’s director doesn’t want African governments to start taxing start-up companies in the fintech industry just yet. Instead the organization wants regulations to encourage innovation rather than try to control the sector.
Situational Awareness: East Africa’s largest mobile-network operator Safaricom actually developed one of the world’s first mobile phone-based money transfer services. The company claims 88% of its almost 30 million customers now use its service.
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