By Akanimo Sampson
MFS Africa, largest mobile money hub in the continent, with over 170 million users connected, and growing, is planning to be transferring £1.8 billion, around N927.8 billion in transactional value annually in the next two years.
Remittances provide a financial safety net for vulnerable households across Africa by enabling the diaspora, both within and outside Africa (including migrant workers), to send money home. Remittances also fund households to act on economic opportunities that contribute to household resilience.
Mobile payments are becoming a crucial channel for remittances, and they also improve consumer access to basic services (information, education, utilities and financial services) that benefit people on low incomes.
MFS Africa makes it easier to make mobile payments to and from issuers of payments services. It can support a growing number of services within the remittance payments business, reducing the cost of transactions and facilitating the use of payments for other services.
FSD Africa Investments’ funding, alongside that of other investors, will allow MFS Africa to scale its operations, open new remittance corridors within Africa, and between Africa and other continents, and build on its existing capability to offer merchant payments and e-commerce services.
The investment will also help MFS Africa to develop new business lines such as agrifinance, agri-extensions, micro-insurance, and data-analytics, among others.
With higher volumes of remittances comes the ability to reduce costs to the consumer, improve the efficiency of payments, and open up services that will allow the African consumer to gain more access to health, education, and other basic services.
‘’We provide early-stage, risk-bearing capital to selected breakthrough firms that can strengthen financial markets in Africa’’, it says on its website.
FSD Africa Investments is the investment arm of FSD Africa. It is seeking out ambitious financial ventures with the potential to test and drive innovative models that can address market failures.
It claims that its investments are flexible and responsive, using different transaction structures and a mix of tools to disperse capital – including loans, guarantees and equity or quasi-equity, adding, ‘’we have a high risk appetite, and seek financial returns as well as high development impact.’’
It is focusing its investments in three key development areas: Investing in solutions that broaden access to finance for small firms, and to financial services for underserved communities; and in firms that, through innovative financial solutions, unlock access to affordable housing, clean energy, electricity, water and sanitation.
‘’We invest in ventures that strengthen local currencies and remove barriers to capital raising for SMEs, providing low-risk, long-term finance to the real sector’’, it adds.
