(AfDB) - The Indian government will contribute $2 million to the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), housed and managed by the African Development Bank, affirming its commitment to help break down barriers to the growth and uptake of digital financial solutions and accelerate financial inclusion in Africa.

Globally recognised for the success of its digital public payments system that has transformed governance, financial inclusion and resilience for millions of people nationwide, India’s collaboration with ADFI enables the facility to learn from best practices and help scale up initiatives to meet the needs of financially excluded and underserved people in Africa.

Despite the growing evidence of digitization catalyzing sustainable development in Africa, recent data shows that nearly half the continent’s adult population does not benefit from digital financial solutions, particularly women, youth, farmers, small businesses and rural communities.

Manisha Sinha, Additional Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs and Principal ADFI Governing Council Member for India said that the unique, affordable, inclusive, and equitable model of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) offers shared learning opportunities across the digital finance ecosystem.

“India’s pioneering role in digital financial services, extending financial inclusion to remote rural areas and creating infrastructure for digitisation of financial services, opens a significant opportunity for India to work within the ADFI partnership to share learning and expertise on digital public infrastructure to further digital financial inclusion across the continent,” added Ms Sinha.

ADFI supports the African Development Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy focus on inclusive growth and the High 5 priority to Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa. Its role also aligns with the Bank’s financial sector development department’s mandate to improve access to finance for the underserved. ADFI works to scale innovative digital financial solutions under the three broad strategic pillars of infrastructure, policies and regulations and product innovation.  Capacity building and gender inclusion cut across all interventions.

Solomon Quaynor, African Development Bank vice president for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization, said, “We welcome the Government of India’s support of the catalytic role ADFI has been playing in accelerating greater access and usage of digital financial solutions and financial inclusion across the continent. We look forward to working together to add learning from India’s digital public infrastructure success story within our expanding portfolio of digital financial solutions initiatives to enhance the impact on greater economic empowerment, resilience and growth across Africa.”

About Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI)

ADFI works to make digital financial solutions in Africa valuable, affordable, safe and accessible by breaking down systemic barriers to the growth of digital financial inclusion in general and reducing the gender gap in financial inclusion in particular. Current ADFI partners are the Agence française de developpement (AFD); the Ministry of Finance, Government of India; the Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, France; the Ministry of Finance, Luxembourg; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative; and the African Development Bank, which also hosts the fund. For more information: www.adfi.org