Financing Africa: setting the stage

Cautious hope is in the air for finance in Africa. While the global crisis may have dented some of the progress made since the beginning of the 21st century, one feels the optimism and sees the positive trends. A deepening of financial systems can be observed in many African countries, with more financial services, especially credit, provided to more enterprises and households. New players and new products, often enabled by new technologies, have helped broaden access to financial services, especially savings and payment products. Innovative approaches to reaching out to previously unbanked parts of the population go beyond cell phone–based M-Pesa in Kenya and basic transaction accounts, such as Mzansi accounts in South Africa. Competition and innovation dominate African financial systems, and, for every failure, there is now at least one success. However, many challenges remain, and the journey toward deeper, more efficient, and more inclusive financial systems will be long and fraught with many difficult choices in many countries in Africa. Africa’s financial systems ha