The event was arranged under the theme “Financial and Education Inclusion in Africa”.

“The global Kearney team organised an International Women’s Day event earlier this year where we focused on a commitment to Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion. We also discussed how we need to make sure we tackle the need to break the bias we see through Africa,” said Theo Sibiya (MD and Partner at Kearney).

“As we find our new ways of the working post the pandemic, we have lived through devastating effects globally, a war in Eastern Europe, unprecedented inflation rates and a shift in world power, we have also seen the resilience and heart of Africans and the opportunities that this hope and optimism hold for Africa.”

This week’s event unpacked some of those opportunities, how they have been realised, and innovative programmes that foster inclusion in the hope of igniting the fire inside others. It also unpacked a call to action on how others can create an environment where education and financial literacy are a norm in all businesses and communities across Africa.

“But for this to happen, there are key fundamentals which demand attention. They are financial and education inclusion. We must be better, we must enable, and we have to intentionally look for ways of including more communities in the work we do in the inclusion space.

“This is what this week’s event focused on,” explained Jo-Ann Pöhl, senior advisor for Kearney,

Hosted by Sibiya and Pöhl, the panel was made up of Melvyn Lubega (Co-founder of Go1), Charmaine Houvet (Senior Director: Africa Cisco), Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde (Head of Brand and Reputation for Google, Sub-Saharan Africa), Hentus Honiball: Partner (Lead of FIG at Kearney), Nuru Mugambi (Sustainable Finance and Responsible Investment in Africa Policy Advisor), and Abimbola Agbejule (Head of Corporate Sustainability and ESG at ALAT by Wema).

“Our panellists were drawn from a diverse range of industries with a distinct passion for people and doing what’s right because it makes sense and is commercially viable too. We all seemed to have agreed on a few things by the end of the day,” said Pohl

These points of agreement were:

• We need a village. This work is about collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.
• If you don't intentionally include someone, you unintentionally exclude them.
• We need to first understand what the gap is before we can start bridging the gap when it comes to education and financial inclusion.
• Education forms the bedrock on which economic development and financial inclusion can be built.

It was also pointed out by one of the speakers that financial inclusion can help reach seven of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  

“The pursuit of inclusion is a subject we have noticed in every territory in which we work. The question for us is how we learn from these territories and bring the best solutions to the people of Africa. We need to remove the barriers that exclude people from financial activity,” said Kearney’s Hentus Honiball in his presentation.

“There is some misalignment about bringing new customers into the financial system. We need to better align it so that we can address financial inclusion. You cannot exclude people because they don’t have a permanent salary. Judge them on their behaviour rather than on their assets,” added Honiball.

Nuru Mugambi further added to the conversation that she believed the work boiled down to ‘re-wiring’ banking in Africa.

“There are challenges and there are opportunities. We can learn from other markets, especially the lesson about access to markets. Inclusion is a means to an end for people. We need to understand what they want to use the money for, when we talk about real inclusion. We need to make the most of the Covid Kairos moment we find ourselves in,” she said.

“Equipping people with the right tools and empowering them helps unlock their potential and ensures that we realise the critical and long-term positive effects of a stronger and more sustainable Africa. We want the right kind of inclusion. We need to see financial and education inclusion as a contact sport and get involved,” said Pöhl.

You can watch a recording of the Africa Panel event at  https://digitalaccess-events.com/business-engage/africapanel-aug22/lobby