High-level African financial inclusion policymakers and regulators, along with other public and private stakeholders, convened in Dakar, Senegal, for the 4th Annual Leaders’ Roundtable of the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI) on 4-5 February 2016.

The meeting was co-hosted by AFI member institution the Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO), and attracted more than 100 participants to the forum, including over 60 representatives from 23 AFI members hailing from 22 countries.

“The AMPI Leaders’ Roundtable is more important now than ever at a time when the use of new technology is changing the habits of the population in terms of payments in Africa,” said Tiémoko Meyliet Kone, Governor at BCEAO. “These capacity building efforts in AFI’s central banks, along with the private sector, are important areas of focus. The critical role of public-private dialogue cannot be understated in our search for financial inclusion solutions.”

It was noted by leaders at the start of the meeting that AMPI embodies the ongoing paradigm shift toward peer learning and knowledge exchange AFI has championed since its inception as a project of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to its current status as a newly independent, member-owned international organization. Norbert Mumba, Deputy Executive Director at AFI, underscored that AFI is excited to continue to assume an important role in this new form of dialogue through initiatives such as AMPI.

 “From the Cape to Cairo, mobile financial services have altered the financial landscape by advancing the frontiers of financial inclusion across the continent,” he said. “These advances would not have been possible without the foresight, persistence and resolve of AFI policymakers and regulators, particularly those involved in AMPI. Our members have routinely exhibited a willingness to come together to better harness new technologies and business models that scale up financial inclusion.”

Dialogue at the meeting centered around several main themes, including: collaborative approaches among financial regulators to enable digital cross-border remittances; the role of regulators for effective interoperability in digital financial services; the role of regulators in facilitating interactions between micro-finance institutions (MFIs) and digital financial services; and, emerging trends in digital financial services in Africa.

Much attention was paid to the importance of combating the financing of terrorism when discussing how regulators could best enable digital cross-border remittances.

Stephen Mwaura, Head of National Payments System at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), reminded his peers that when authorizing digital cross-border remittances, it is paramount to take care of AML/CFT requirements. “The regulation space requires that we be alive to CFT issues—let us not expose our countries to unnecessary risk because we have not mitigated it.”

Attendees also strongly agreed regulators need to be open and flexible to allow MFIs come in market and innovate, which requires close collaboration with the central bank. Banco de Moçambique Governor Ernesto Gove, along with Governor Kone, noted there is a desire from central banks to be involved in process and get more info about the business case.

In fact, former CBK Governor Professor Njuguna Ndung’u stressed that there is a need to document the business case, and bring in the regulator for more specific analysis which will improve regulation.

Leaders at the roundtable eventually concurred that AMPI can help MFIs by bringing MNO regulators engage in a more direct dialogue. “This will provide an opportunity for MNO regulators to hear from the MFIs on their daily challenges, and then they will know how to implement regulation to promote financial inclusion,” said moderator Sambou Coly, Program Manager of Financial Inclusion at MasterCard Foundation, before concluding the session.

Roundtable leaders also discussed an institutional framework for AMPI and agreed on a road map toward establishing a physical presence for the initiative in Africa. Leaders agreed on the guiding principles for the AMPI Charter. Based on these principles, a revised draft AMPI Charter will be submitted for approval in September 2016 at the Global Policy Forum (GPF) in Fiji. “I am happy the road map has been created with an aim at including AMPI in a formalized and institutionalized framework. We just made a breakthrough toward the improvement of effectiveness of our actions and initiatives,” said Governor Kone.

Finally, AMPI leaders concluded the roundtable meeting announcing Governor Gove as the new AMPI Chairperson, while Lounceny Nabe, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea, was elected as the new AMPI Vice Chairperson. The AFI network also offered its immense gratitude to outgoing Chairperson Governor Kone for his outstanding efforts in the role for the previous two years.

“I think we have all the tools to make our platform of AMPI work. All we have to do is to inspire on our strategic plan, and it relies on our good staff, the help desk, and AFI Management Unit, and we’ll make a difference in Africa in terms of financial inclusion,” said Governor Gove. “We want our people to be included in the process of creating wealth but also everyone included in this process, improving their disposable income. We have to use new technology of digital financial services. With the collaboration of all the stakeholders, especially the AFI Public Private Dialogue partners, we’ll succeed.”