Description

The fourth edition of the SAM will take place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso from 21 to 25 October 2019 and is expected to attract more than 500 participants.  This event will focus on inclusive finance in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).​

The African Microfinance Week (SAM – Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance) is a biennial conference dedicated to the development of financial inclusion in Africa.

The African inclusive finance sector is flourishing. It has achieved substantial impacts, developed promising innovations and created important new inroads to cross-sectoral collaboration and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Financial inclusion across the continent climbed from 24% to 43% between 2011 and 2017, led in large part by digital innovations. Sub-Saharan Africa has become the world leader in mobile money with 21% of adult Africans owning a mobile money account.

Meanwhile, innovations in rural finance and the use of satellite and SMS technology are reinforcing the availability and impact of crop insurance and farm loans, thereby enabling some of Africa’s smallholder farmers to increase yields and financial resilience. And multisectoral partnerships in health and sanitation are leading to better health outcomes that improve productivity, enhance financial services performance and help make economic growth possible.

SAM objectives

• Identify, discuss and celebrate the innovations, impacts and contributions that the African inclusive finance sector has made over the past 3-5 years toward achieving the SDGs;
• Analyze the gaps and challenges currently facing the sector and catalyze promising solutions to address them;
• Reinforce the sector’s commitment to and tools for effective impact measurement and business case analysis;
• Stimulate new and enrich existing relationships with potential partners and allies across the African inclusive finance sector, including promoting actionable plans and follow-through after the conference;
• Leverage the Luxembourg Cooperation’s financial expertise and enhance the agency’s role as a key partner for inclusive finance practitioners working to achieve the SDGs in Africa;
• Rally participants around how to focus their individual and collective energy in order to make substantial progress toward the 2030 milestones that we will reassess at SAM 2021.

Discover the AGENDA HERE 

Exhibit in the Innovators’ Village! 

The objective of the “Innovators’ Village” is to showcase innovations that significantly contribute to the SDGs fostering financial inclusion, for an audience of microfinance institutions, investors, donors and NGOs. Are you an innovator and would you like to present your innovative solutions to financial inclusion professionals? All info available HERE