AFIS Action Framework: Our priorities for Africa's financial progress
From establishing equitable debt frameworks to positioning African banking giants on the global stage, the AFIS platform sets out the building blocks Africa needs to deliver a more inclusive, competitive, and globally influential African financial industry.
Inspired by the flagship panels and strategic roundtables of the Africa Financial Summit – AFIS 2024 in Casablanca—where over 1,200 financial leaders convened, from central bank governors to fintech CEOs—these recommendations lay out a clear roadmap for Africa’s financial future.
Global Economic & Stability Challenges
Harmonising regulations across African regional blocks and country jurisdictions, restructuring sovereign debt, and addressing how Africa is perceived by international investors: our three recommendations under AFIS’ ‘Global Economic & Stability Challenges’ pillar assess how to create a stable foundation for the financial industry.
1. FOSTER CONVERGENCE OF FINANCIAL SECTOR REGULATIONS
Harmonising regulation within regional economic blocs or supporting “financial passporting rights” with mutually recognised licensing frameworks will foster the resilient PanAfrican financial institutions our economies need to drive growth. Fragmented regulations across borders prevent banks and insurers from scaling and conducting business seamlessly across borders. Prioritising initiatives such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System will help reduce transaction costs, make it easier to allocate capital within the continent and expedite meaningful progress in intra-African trade. Growing a common body of regulation for innovation in financial services (Generative AI, crypto platforms, blockchain, etc) will also be required.
2. IMPROVE SOVEREIGN CREDIT RATINGS THAT PENALISE AFRICAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Credit risk ratings for African sovereigns continue to be lumped in the highest risk brackets and overstated, according to AFIS surveys. Sovereign ratings rely too heavily on qualitative risk criteria rather than objective, metrics-based risk evaluations. This has a knock-on effect on local and pan-African financial institutions raising capital from international investors, both in the quantum of capital available and the risk premium charged to African FIs raising international debt. A more structured, ongoing dialogue between African financial leaders, regulators, IFIs and rating agencies is needed to find common ground on how African sovereign risk is evaluated.
3. EXPAND DEBT FOR DEVELOPMENT SWAPS
Programs that swap high-interest FX denominated public debt repayments for investments in critical infrastructure, including quality education and healthcare, can provide much-needed relief as capacity to service debt continues to deteriorate in many African countries. Côte d’Ivoire in December 2024 agreed a €400 million debt-for-development swap with the World Bank Group – the first of its kind – redirecting savings into education funding. Similar deals should be pursued to refinance expensive foreign currency debt with commercial bank loans denominated in local currency, backed by development bank guarantees. These blended finance programs enable local banks to finance high impact sectors that require extended lending maturities.
Commercial Banking Outlook
Expanding financial services to the Bottom of the Pyramid, stronger presence in global financial hubs, integrating Trade and Payment platforms and reassessing how African governments hold foreign exchange reserves, are among priorities AFIS sees for the commercial banking sector.
1. MOVE BEYOND BASIC FINANCIAL INCLUSION TO PROVIDE A WIDER SET OF FINANCIAL SERVICES
A broader suite of financial services – from consumer credit, leasing, micro-insurance and micro-investment products – is needed to ensure remote and low-income populations have the tools to grow their businesses and build wealth. Financial inclusion is now about ensuring citizens have a range of quality, accessible and affordable products rather than box-ticking on whether an African household is banked or unbanked. Commercial banks will need to grow partnerships with agile fintechs and telcos to deliver a broader mix of financial services to the retail market.
2. GROW SERVICE OFFERINGS IN GLOBAL FINANCIAL HUBS
From the City of London to Shanghai, African commercial banks will need to strengthen their presence in global financial hubs to allow more intra-African trade to be settled locally, reducing the 85% currently processed outside the continent. A number of African banks have opened branches in Europe and the UAE, but their coverage and service offerings remain limited due to stringent licensing terms for emerging market banks. Global expansion will help the biggest Pan-African banks to eventually achieve enough scale to become correspondent banks for smaller African banks, filling a void left by departing international players.
3. TRUST LOCAL BANKS WITH FOREX RESERVES
African governments should have faith in local banks to hold a larger share of public sector foreign exchange reserves as was successfully done in the largest economies of the continent, instead of the widespread practice of depositing central bank reserves with international banks and then paying a significant macro risk premium to borrow back those funds from international creditors.
4. STRENGTHEN TRADE GUARANTEES AND ADVOCACY WITH INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT BANKS
In the context of continued de-risking by international correspondent banks, access to USD and EUR clearing by African issuing banks is increasingly challenging. With several African countries grey listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and global banks scaling back their African operations and presence, proactive engagement supported by the Trade Guarantee Facilities of Development Finance Institutions is essential to maintain and expand key international financial relationships. As Africa’s trade partnerships expand in Asia and the Middle East, active engagement with leading financial institutions—both public and private—in these fast-growing regional trading blocs will be critical.
Capital Markets & Asset Management
AFIS highlights two top priorities for capital markets and asset management: unlocking capital from institutional investors and developing sophisticated financial products to mitigate investment risks.
1. LOOSEN INVESTMENT LIMITS TO UNLOCK PENSION FUND INFRASTRUCTURE CAPITAL
Regulatory reforms and tools like securitisation and project bonds are needed to draw domestic pension and insurance funds into African capital markets, unlocking patient capital with a 10–20-year horizon that can bridge Africa’s $108 billion annual infrastructure gap. African capital markets are currently dominated by the public sector and serve primarily as government debt platforms. Strict investment limits and a lack of enabling frameworks prevent pension funds from participating more actively.
2. ADVANCE DERIVATIVES & SECURITISATION TO DERISK INVESTMENTS
Relying solely on banks for financing is unsustainable—stakeholders must develop the broader financial ecosystem. A robust derivatives market is crucial for managing currency and investment risks, which banks alone cannot address, and for driving innovation like Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), still underdeveloped in Africa. Complementary tools like securitisation and covered bonds can further enhance liquidity and create a more dynamic financial market.
Impact & Sustainability
AFIS identifies greater commercial bank commitment to ESG-related themes including climate finance and corporate governance as important levers to drive impact and sustainability.
1.SCALE UP AFRICAN FINANCIAL SECTOR SUPPORT FOR CLIMATE FINANCE
African banks have a much greater role to play in climate finance. Currently, local commercial banks contribute just 18% of Africa’s climate finance flows with funding dominated by international development finance institutions and concentrated in agroforestry and land use. With Africa needing annual climate finance flows to quadruple by 2030, banks must find profitable pathways to mainstream sustainability into investment decisions and embed E&S risk mitigants when lending to high-risk sectors from extractive industries to infrastructure and real estate projects.
2. MAINSTREAM CORPORATE GOVERNANCE BEST PRACTICES IN THE AFRICAN FINANCIAL INDUSTRY
With 61% of African financial institutions having less than 25% independent board members (AFIS-Deloitte Barometer) and most lacking age or term limits for CEOs and board members, governance weaknesses threaten to hinder growth and succession planning. Institutions must increase the proportion of independent board members, establish leadership tenure limits, and implement clear succession plans. These measures reduce reliance on dominant founders, enhance diversity in the boardroom and build long-term market confidence.
Expanding Insurance
With Africa’s insurance penetration stubbornly low and climate risks rising, AFIS calls for harmonised insurance regulations within regional blocs, the creation of regional climate risk pools, and freemium insurance products on telco platforms.
1. ALIGN CONTINENTAL INSURANCE REGULATION
In the spirit of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), insurance supervisors should move away from national silos, and progressively align solvency, consumer protection, and investment rules within regional economic blocs. Geopolitical and climate risks increasingly transcend national borders, overwhelming the capacity of individual countries’ insurance sectors. Regulatory alignment will foster underwriters with big balance sheets to tackle risk cross-borders and drive risk pooling by sharing underwriting across jurisdictions. The CIMA region’s single regulator offers a proven model for harmonised frameworks. Regional success can serve as a springboard for eventual Pan-African regulatory integration.
2. GROW INSURANCE WITH FREEMIUM TELCO PRODUCTS
Insurance penetration in Africa averages just 1.5%, largely due to products unsuitable for informal workers, 83% of Africa’s workforce, who often lack steady incomes to pay regular premiums. Freemium insurance, driven by telco and AgTech partnerships, could ease cost barriers. These embed insurance into services informal workers already buy—like airtime—with insurance premiums baked into the pricing. For instance, buying a certain amount of airtime would grant a free health, life or bundled insurance cover.
3. CREATE RISK POOLS TO COVER CLIMATE INSURANCE NEEDS
Climate shocks are set to become more frequent, severe and unpredictable. To avoid a widening disaster risk insurance gap, governments will need to stabilise the insurance industry so it can cover otherwise intolerable climate risks that are becoming harder to calculate. Morocco’s $275 million Solidarity Fund—which was raised by a levy on non-life insurance policies—provides a blueprint, having injected liquidity into the insurance space following the 2023 earthquake. But state support alone will not be enough. Regional climate risk pools—backed by contributions from member states, development banks and donors—may be necessary to bring insurance cover to populations unprotected in the event of climate catastrophes. This exists in part via African Union specialised entity ‘African Risk Capacity’, but it is primarily a state-led initiative, with few private insurers involved.
Digital Financial Services & Fintech
AFIS sets out three priorities to accelerate digital financial services: leveraging AI to boost operational efficiency, risk management and compliance across the board for African FIs, ensuring Retail CBDCs go beyond payments to include credit and insurance, and harmonising Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering rules to enable seamless intra-regional mobile money flows.
1. BETTER RISK MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY THROUGH INNOVATION
African financial institutions can make unprecedented efficiency gains and improvements in risk management by collaborating not just with Big Tech companies but also supporting agile African Fintechs and AI innovators to create custom AI platforms. The AI-backed platforms will help to streamline processes—for example in customer onboarding to verify IDs and to detect document tampering. This allows for rapid document analysis on a mobile app, avoiding customer branch visits. Voice-enabled AI assistants can even engage with customers with limited literacy, making onboarding accessible. AI platforms can also identify fraudulent transactions and flag payments tied to illicit products, illegal websites, ensuring compliance with illicit financial flows and anti-money laundering regulations. Local banks, insurers and telcos can additionally leverage AI to monitor customer spending patterns, building credit scores and identifying customer groups for targeted financial products.
2. ENSURE CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES DELIVER SERVICES BEYOND PAYMENTS
Retail Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)—under consideration in many countries—should go beyond facilitating payments to enable access to credit, savings, insurance, and other financial products, especially for underserved populations. This requires central banks to partner with guarantee funds, credit providers, and micro-insurers during the launch phase. Retail CBDCs should be integrated with mobile platforms, supported by robust financial literacy campaigns, and interoperable with existing systems like mobile money platforms, payment switches, and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).
3. ESTABLISH COMMON KYC & AML RULES TO BOOST INTRA-REGIONAL MOBILE MONEY FLOWS
Central banks should work towards common Africa-wide frameworks on Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer in line with international standards if they hope to achieve true pan-African interoperability for payment systems and mobile money. Currency conversion Memorandums of Understanding between regional economic blocs—tested in sandboxes and designed in collaboration with mobile money providers—could also allow businesses to transact in mobile money outside their regions. Regional payment systems are making it simpler for businesses to make real-time, cross-border payments and mobile money transactions within regional blocs, but transactions outside those blocs remain challenging and compliance monitoring costs for cross-border transactions remain elevated for African financial industry players.