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By Saviour Chibiya, Chief Executive of Absa Regional Operations (ARO) Access to financial services in Africa had for decades been defined by disparities—between rural and urban areas, between men and women, between small businesses and larger enterprises. It meant that millions, especially the continent’s most vulnerable populations, were excluded from the formal economy, curbing entrepreneurship, restricting access to credit, and stifling upward financial mobility for far too long. But by the turn of the millennium, change was afoot. Early web pioneers like Ghanaian professor Nii Quaynor, often hailed as "Africa’s father of the internet", were busy laying the groundwork for the continent's foundational online infrastructure. In 1994, Quaynor introduced Ghana’s first internet service ...

By Reggie Mlangeni, Head of Sales and Structuring at Absa Corporate and Investment Banking When detached from the intricate realities of Africa’s economic environment, financial risk management strategies that may prove successful elsewhere often falter. For nations grappling with rising levels of sovereign debt, unpredictable regulatory uncertainties, and the far-reaching repercussions of political transitions, traditional frameworks, often borrowed from more stable economies, fail to account for the volatility and complexity inherent in many African markets – necessitating a re-evaluation of how financial risks are quantified and managed on the continent. Recent developments in several countries have been particularly illustrative of this. In Ghana, faced with substantial revenue co...

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Digitisation as Africa’s Great Equaliser in Financial Services

Why Africa’s Approach to Financial Risk Management Needs to Change