Bank–fintech and microfinance institution (MFI) collaborations delivering digital banking, credit and payment products to Africa’s 44 million MSMEs live or die by how they’re structured. Some have collapsed due to profit sharing disputes and competitive tensions. Others, like Safaricom and NCBA’s M-Shwari have been vastly successful. Agreeing on profit and data sharing, allocating liability for fraud or credit risk, and ensuring seamless API integration can make-or-break partnerships. From AI-powered credit scoring to real-time digital payment systems that generate the transaction histories MSMEs need to qualify for credit, how can partnerships be structured to plug Africa’s $330 billion SME financing gap?
Key points
- What are the key determinants of a winning fintech-MFI-bank partnership?
- Could fintechs and telcos growing to the scale of traditional banks, and banks enhancing their own fintech capabilities, threaten the future of partnerships?
- How can the new frontiers for AI in credit scoring, detecting customer transaction patterns and fraud support MSMEs at scale?