Policymakers, regulators and supervisors in emerging markets are under pressure to develop, implement and enforce policy and regulation that conforms to global best practice but is effective locally despite considerable constraints. Cenfri leverages the legal background, policymaking and regulatory experience of key team members and assists via direct regulatory development or policy guidance but more often through technical assistance and skills building.
Much of our work has been in the financial sector across Africa, Asia and Latin America. This includes an impressive “regulating for innovation” portfolio in support of financial sector regulators who are grappling with innovation or market development mandates in regulatory environments that do not effectively accommodate the range of risks presented by new financial service innovations. We also support improved digital and data governance in Africa. Examples range from creating a set of scenarios on the possible digital futures in Africa, to developing a data-sharing policy for the Government of Rwanda and researching fit-for-context open finance solutions for Africa.
Innovation can enable insurance to become a powerful engine of growth and development across the continent, but achieving this requires that market players and regulators work together to build an ecosystem in which responsible innovation can thrive. For regulators, doing so means not only understanding the current state of innovation
Nothing illustrates the incredible power of data-driven decision-making more than the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Lamenting the disparities in genomic sequencing data from high versus lower-middle income countries, Professor Happi, from the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Nigeria, has talked about the pressure they experienced early
A supervisory toolkit to help regulators navigate their role and guide decisions in regulating for innovation. The need to create an environment that enables innovation is an increasingly important priority for financial regulators across the developing world. Regulatory mandates have expanded and financial regulators are increasingly legally responsible for the conduct of business, consumer outcomes and proactive market
The global COVID-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of connectedness – and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Africa are no exception. As MSMEs begin a path to recovery in 2021, digital platforms can be a way to get them reconnected. The impact of COVID-19 on MSMEs in Africa
Africa Fintech Network (AFN), in partnership with global data analytics firm findexable and independent African think tank Cenfri, are launching the first pan-African fintech census and digital map to track fintech activity across the whole of Africa. The Africa Fintech Radar initiative will drive visibility and awareness of Africa’s fintech innovation ecosystems before a
For the past year, Cenfri and Finmark Trust have been partnering with NextBillion to share insights from their Insight2Impact (i2i) initiative, a five-year program that has sought to improve financial inclusion and related public policies through the smarter use of data. Their Openi2i Series has explored key learning areas from the program, ranging from program design and stakeholder engagement to digital skills development and innovation
Behavioural science studies how people behave and tries to answer why they behave in the way they do. This is done by looking at how people process information and how context affects our decisions. Being aware of their customers’ decision-making processes can help financial services providers develop products that really
In September 2020, the South African Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) published the draft conduct standard for third-party cell captives for public comment. The issuance of the draft conduct standard represents the culmination of a long regulatory journey for cell captives in South Africa, first via licence conditions placed on
The past decade has seen the emergence of digital platforms, which connect buyers and sellers of goods and services and allow them to seamlessly transact with one another online. The platform economy is expected to grow to USD405 billion by 2030, more than double from USD204 billion in 2018, with
Expanded smartphone access in Africa underpins evolving consumer behaviour. Smartphone uptake in Africa is growing rapidly. GSMA reported that smartphone adoption in sub-Saharan Africa reached 45% in 2018 – nearly half a billion people – and is projected to reach 66% by 2025. To put that further into perspective, 623
Although Kevin has a master’s degree in science and had been teaching ICT to secondary school students in Kenya for over 25 years, he scored just 61% on a digital skills test run by Cenfri. This test asked participants to research and digitally present a day trip to Nairobi for German
