Emerging Africa has for a long time been a topic of discussion in the corporate world, but now the global markets have no choice but to take Africa seriously, especially with the mobile market trends and, in particular, financial services.
The financial markets are especially on edge with the emergence of Fintec disrupting traditional banking, and it is yet to be decided whether other emerging innovations will present challenges or opportunitiesfor the global financial markets. A mix of both is the most likely outcome.
The internet revolution disrupted and destroyed traditional industries throughout the 1990s and during the early part of the twenty-first century. High street retail industries have had to adapt to the demand in ecommerce by providing online retail platforms, and the music industry has been decimated by MP3 downloads. However, due to the strict regulation of financial service activities, the financial sector was less affected.Until now.
A new breed of entrepreneurs is using technology to change the dynamics of banking in order to provide services that challenge the traditional banking methods that give consumers more freedom, more choice and more transparency.
Mobile Fintec disturbance, in particular, is predicted to have more impact on the emerging markets, such as Africa and Asia, than it does on the Western world. For example, 183 million people in Africa currently own mobile wallets, which accounts for 12% of the population.This is three times morethan in the US,accounting for only 2% of the population there. These extremes between global and regional Fintec uptake are mainly due to the popularity in mobile technologies in Africa and the lack of widespread use of fixed-line internet.
Due to security and infrastructure issues in Africa, more people rely on mobile technologies rather than fixed-line internet, and 884 million people in Africa (with an average age of 18 years) had mobile subscriptionsin 2014 –which is 17% of the population – and this is predicted to increase to 76% (1.32 bn)by the end of 2020.This, partnered with the fact that 80% of people in Africa do not have bank accounts, makes Fintec a digital revolution guaranteed to drive financial inclusion and present a paradigm shift in global banking.

Samantha Rockson