Digitisation as Africa’s Great Equaliser in Financial Services
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 ...