KIGALI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Officials and financial experts on Wednesday said that African economies need to fully embrace technologies in order to improve the level of financial inclusion on the continent.
They were speaking at the opening of the 25th edition of African Regional Conference for the Society for the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a global member-owned cooperative and the world's leading provider of secure financial messaging services, in the Rwandan capital Kigali.
Opening the event, Rwandan Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said that modernizing Africa financial sector by using the power of technology holds key to financial inclusion and overall economic transformation on the continent.
"There is a consensus in Africa that the economic outlook for the next decade will highly be driven by the service sector dominated by ICT and financial services," he said.
Nearly all the growth in financial inclusion in Africa has been due to the successful adoption of mobile banking services, said John Rwangombwa, governor of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR).
"With the evolution of digital services through financial technology, African financial institutions must gradually shift their main transaction methods toward digital," said Alain Raes, chief executive Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific at SWIFT.
"Technology is crucial to development, especially when the need comes up to drive inclusion and connectivity," Raes said.
He noted that mobile banking and other electronic transactions will make it easy for financial institutions to reach wider coverage especially in the underserved and unreached areas.
Monica Singer, financial technology expert at software company ConsenSys, called on the banking sector in Africa to leverage financial technologies to boost financial inclusion.
"To increase participation in the financial system, African financial institutions must embrace digital technology. Technology could take advantage of existing cash transactions to bring people into the financial system," she said.
The three-day meeting has brought together more than 500 leading financial service executives, including government officials and members of the civil society from over 40 countries across Africa and beyond, according to organizers.
The meeting will look at key trends in the region, including the next generation of payments, new financial technologies and their potential to drive trade and financial inclusion.
Globally, 1.7 billion adults remain unbanked, yet two-thirds of them own a mobile phone that could help them access financial services, according to the World Bank Group.
