PAYMENTS: AFRICA
Changing face of payments : HPS is piloting blockchain-enabled processing in Morocco
A continental shift Africa is a vast continent with huge potential in the payments space. We caught up with Abdeslam Alaoui Smaili, CEO of HPS, a multinational provider of payment solutions, based in Morocco, to discuss innovative services, financial inclusion and how his company is using blockchain there for social good The first name that springs to mind when you put ‘payments’ and ‘Africa’ together is Kenyan money transfer and micro-financing service M-Pesa, which has quickly become the world’s largest mobile money network, enabling millions of Africans to access safe and secure banking solutions. But there’s more to digital payments in Africa than M-Pesa. Much more. Ecobank
56
TheFintechMagazine | Issue 17
Group, a leading pan-African financial institution, recently highlighted that mobile money payments of all kinds have grown exponentially, while the Central Bank of Nigeria has tried promoting a cashless society by imposing charges on cash withdrawals over a certain amount. According to Statista, the number of electronic payment transactions in Nigeria had already grown from 66 million in 2008 to more than two billion in 2018. In terms of absolute numbers, the digital payments market has matured faster in Africa than it has in Europe – however, it’s a mixed picture across the continent. A 2019 World Bank report pointed to the near-340 million adults in Sub-Saharan Africa who still do not have an account at a financial institution. One barrier to financial inclusion is access to digital technology. While mobile phones have been central to the region’s achievements, device ownership is twice as high among wealthier adults than poorer adults in Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar, for example. Nonetheless, analyses suggest that Africa will be the first continent to experience real
mass adoption of mobile payments. According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, by 2030 more than two billion people from regions with inadequate banking services will be using mobile payments on a daily basis. And more than 40 per cent of new users will be in Africa. There are significant international efforts underway to address the disparity of financial inclusion in Africa and help level the playing field. The UK Government, for example, is piloting a new programme that will link tech communities in the UK and Africa to accelerate the adoption of financial services and create a solid platform for future trading. In the first 12 months, a UK-Africa Tech for Growth community will be set up to help increase access to financial services and devices for the unbanked, with partnerships between British and African tech and finance firms heavily promoted. More and more African banks are pivoting to a mobile-led, digital transformation strategy to help them reach more customers. Many are looking to an established ‘broker’ such www.fintech.finance