African Development Fund signs $14.2m grant agreement for financial digitalisation initiative

By Edlyn Cardoza

The African Development Fund (ADF) and the government of Malawi have signed a grant agreement for $14.2 million to undertake infrastructure upgrades and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system.

Funding for the support for Digitalisation, Financial Inclusion and Competitiveness (DFIC) project, approved last December, will be sourced from ADF, the Bank Group’s concessional financing window.

“The DFIC project is aligned with the Malawi Digital Economy Strategy (2021-2026) and the Third National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (2022-2026); both contribute to achieving Malawi’s long-term objective of inclusive wealth creation supported by an inclusive financial system and digital economy,” said Sosten Alfred Gwengwe, Malawi’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs during a signing ceremony.

The project will widen financial inclusion in the country, particularly women, youth and rural dwellers. It will also allow for efficient business transactions, offering small businesses the opportunity to gain access to new national and international markets.

The project is expected to boost Malawi’s domestic financial inclusion rate from 58% in 2019 to 65% in 2025. The GDP contribution of the ICT sector is expected to rise from 5.7% to 7% over the same period. Export volumes are expected to rise to 35% of GDP from 31%, in line with the targets of the national export strategy. Currently, the total commitment in the African Development Bank’s active portfolio in Malawi stands at about $327 million.

Macmillan Anyanwu, The African Development Bank’s Country Manager for Malawi, said the signing of the DFIC project grant agreement recently was an important step towards promoting the use of electronic transactions in Malawi to increase access and use of affordable financial services, mainly amongst women, youth, and rural dwellers. “The project will also enable more efficient business transactions, offering small businesses the opportunity to gain access to new markets,” he said.

IBS Intelligence reported that The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group had approved a $1.5 million grant to assess policy gaps in the digital trade and e-commerce ecosystems in 10 countries in Africa.