6 November 2018, Dakar, Senegal - The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has for many years been a pioneer in the development of digital financial services for financial inclusion.

You might have heard about how UNCDF helped Ebola health workers in Sierra Leonne get paid digitally; or how UNCDF supported a mobile network operator in Uganda to launch a new digital credit service in 2017, which attracted more than three million users in the first months; perhaps you also heard about the journey of a microfinance institution in Senegal, which digitised the savings collection of 90,000 women?

To build on all these experiences in digital services, UNCDF is organizing with its private sector partners a knowledge-sharing conference #DFS4What – Building Inclusive Digital Economies, in Dakar, Senegal from 6-8 November 2018, at the Pullman Teranga Hotel.

The first day will focus on the state of digital financial services in West Africa, and the role of innovation in the future of digital finance, with speakers from China, Benin, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia and Fiji.

The second day will be dedicated to field exercises. Participants will test, with users in Thiès, how digital solutions can improve their communications with customers, change the way credit is allocated, or allow better monitoring of financial services distribution.

On the last day, participants will be able to share lessons learned in sectors such as agriculture and participate in a networking session.

More than 170 participants involved in digital finance projects implemented in Asia, the Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa, will take part in the event. This includes: private sector actors such as mobile phone operators (Airtel, MTN, Orange, Vodafone Fiji, etc.), financial service providers (Equity, Stanbic, CAURIE, etc.), insurance companies (such as Fiji Care) and other non-banking service providers such as Kazang, PEAS, SunFarmers, Zoona and Tootle.

The theme of this UNCDF learning-event is empowering vulnerable people (farmers, youth, women, refugees, migrants, and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises) to enable them to live in a productive and healthy way through the use of digital technology in a variety of sectors (finance, agriculture, education, health, water and sanitation, energy and transport).

Digital finance is already part of the daily life of 21 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the GSMA, there will be 72 million new mobile subscribers by 2025, with a penetration rate of 54% in sub-Saharan Africa. This growth represents a real opportunity for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals if, and only if health, education or even information services for farmers develop at the same speed.

About UNCDF

The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) makes public and private finance work for the poor in the world’s 47 least developed countries. With its capital mandate and instruments, UNCDF offers last mile͟ finance models that unlock public and private resources, especially at the domestic level, to reduce poverty and support local economic development. By identifying market segments where innovative financing models can have transformational impact and address exclusion and inequalities of access, UNCDF contributes to a number of different SDGs.

For more information, visit uncdf.org or follow @UNCDF and UNCDF Facebook