NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Taking customers on a compelling digital payments journey lays the foundation for financial inclusion, writes Andy Jury, CEO of Mukuru.

With the majority of African countries now facing steep economic activity declines in the devastating wake of Covid-19, the next few years will likely test the financial resilience of families and communities in new and severe ways.

Across the continent, where tourism and hospitality have come to a grinding halt, thousands of jobs have been lost in both the formal and informal sectors. Amidst this gloomy narrative, a shining light has been the formidable resilience of remittance flows into African markets after the initial shock of the pandemic and national lockdowns.

This should not come as a huge surprise – given the increasingly pivotal role that remittances are playing in economic growth in developing markets: as the GSMA recently stated, remittances are an important private source of capital that exceeded the levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) into low and middle-income countries (LMICs) for the first time in 2019. Additionally, remittance flows are also three times greater than official development assistance into these countries.

Photo courtesy of ICT4D.at.