Picturing Financial Inclusion in Africa
As leaders from nearly 50 African countries meet this week in Washington, DC to discuss trade and investment opportunities, CGAP is spotlighting some of the entrepreneurial leaders back home who are powering the continent’s rapid economic growth – and we are asking others to help.
The annual CGAP Photo Contest aims to illustrate the remarkable ways that access to financial services can help the poor manage their complex financial lives and grow their businesses. Every year, photographers from around the world help us capture microfinance and financial inclusion at work in people’s lives. Last year, we received nearly 4,000 entries from over 90 countries.
These ladies are harvesting seaweed to sell it to a factory that exports to Japan.
The Contest, now in its ninth year, continues to receive a growing number of standout photographs from countries in Africa. The CGAP Photo Contest has been a great platform for illustrating the diversity and innovation of microfinance and financial inclusion in the region. Submissions have come from Kenya, where people are now using mobile phones to save, earn interest, and borrow money and to purchase clean water. We have received photos from Nigeria, where smallholder farmers are now receiving fertilizer subsidies directly through mobile wallets. And we have received photos from Ghana, where innovative new business are offering microinsurance to the poor.
Expanding access to financial services in Africa is not just good for the poor (three out of four adults in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, do not have an account at a formal financial institution). It’s good for growth. Without financial inclusion, a country’s financial stability is at risk and economic advancement stalls. Though the financial systems of many African countries remain under-developed compared to other emerging economies, many African countries are now able to provide financial services to individuals and enterprises through innovative technologies. We hope that the CGAP Photo Contest will give light to these new ways people can access financial services and demonstrate how financial inclusion makes their lives better.
Help us picture financial inclusion in Africa and around the world. Submit your photos to the 2014 CGAP Photo Contest today.
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