This is the philosophy behind Africa’s largest digital payments network, Onafriq’s, extensive growth and vision to unify the continent’s digital payments landscape according to Funmi Dele-Giwa, the general counsel and chief risk officer.

Dele-Giwa recently shared insights into the organisation’s unique position at the intersection of social impact and commercial ambition at the Women in Payments Symposium EMEA, held in London.

During her speech she delved into the company’s journey in delivering greater financial access and connecting all of Africa into a single integrated network that empowers both individuals and businesses.

“The purpose of Onafriq from the very onset was one of providing financial access to marginalised individuals on the African continent and having a positive impact in the countries we operate in and the clients we serve,” she said. “That is why Onafriq was built on the back of a strong belief that mobile money would serve as a strong enabler of financial access to millions of under- or unserved Africans.”

Established nearly 15 years ago with the mantra of “making borders matter less”, the company aims to facilitate cross-border payment services within Africa – as well as in and out of Africa.

This is underpinned by the vision of Dare Okoudjou, its founder and CEO that making a payment anywhere in the world, to anywhere across the globe should be as easy and as painless as it is to make a phone call.

Today, Onafriq’s payments network connects more than 1,300 cross-border payment corridors providing access to more than 500 million mobile wallets and 200 million bank accounts across 40 African markets.

This vast digital infrastructure is a testament to its position as the “network of networks”, enabling services like cross-border payments, remittances, card issuing, agency banking and more, which facilitate seamless money flow from, to, and across the continent.

During her talk at the symposium, Dele-Giwa noted that remittance services were a key example of this marriage of concepts, having particularly emerged as a powerful tool for boosting economic growth and financial empowerment.

By partnering with international remittance companies, the Onafriq network enables the significant pool of migrant workers from Africa in the diaspora to send and receive money efficiently and affordably. She notes however, that remittances are not just the privy of the global north to south, as there is significant intra-Africa remittance demand which has traditionally remained unmet.

Through partnerships with mobile network operators (MNOs) across the Continent, Onafriq is bridging gaps between countries like Kenya and Uganda, as well as Cameroon and Nigeria, by digitising and facilitating intra-Africa remittance flows.

“Strategic collaborations between key sectors of Africa’s financial services landscape are key to unlocking the full potential of remittances as a catalyst for economic growth and development,”  said Dele-Giwa. “As such, fostering robust partnerships between payment networks and mobile money platforms is important to enabling greater remittance flows given the widespread adoption of mobile wallets across the continent.”

Another way that Onafriq is blending the principles of social betterment with business objectives is by empowering small businesses in Africa to flourish and grow by enabling access to a wider range of choices in disbursing or collecting digital payments over cash.

Onafriq’s partnership with One Acre Fund is an example of how the company’s network has contributed to providing small-scale farmers with asset-based financing services.

“Our work to open up markets and connect people to opportunities continues to empower the African gig economy, enabling GDOs to deliver cash assistance to needy communities and international merchants to pay local creators, influencers and artists, as well as helping small traders to sell their goods across borders, by simplifying the ways they can pay and can get paid,” said Dele-Giwa.

Another notable aspect of Onafriq’s journey of positive social impact, according to Dele-Giwa, is its commitment to empowering women. Through its agent network in Nigeria, women entrepreneurs are able to generate additional income by becoming agents, and by using the Baxi point of sale device they can easily manage payments for their shops and market stalls. Furthermore, partnerships with organisations like the One Acre Fund helped to empower women in small-scale farming, amplifying their economic participation.

For those seeking to emulate Onafriq’s success, Dele-Giwa noted that it was important to align their social mission with the innovation and collaboration needed to achieve a positive impact while pursuing commercial success.

“Let’s remember, it’s not just about the services we offer. It’s about the impact we make while doing so,” she said. “It’s important to share those impactful stories of empowerment and positive change delivered as a result of your products and services, but it is also important to create a set of impact metrics to measure success by. This way you are always able to hold yourself accountable to employees, shareholders, regulators, clients, and other stakeholders.”

If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’re already familiar with the acronym ESG.

Standing for “environmental”, “social”, and “governance”, it’s a constantly evolving standard that emphasises the importance of doing business in a way that positively impacts the environment, society and stakeholders.

In essence, it’s the idea that companies can grow and profit while doing good and it encourages businesses to be more transparent about how they add to or create value for their society, community and/or stakeholders. 

While ESG has its critics (on both sides of the aisle), its philosophy has gained near-universal acceptance in investor circles. In fact, a 2022 study by asset management firm Capital Group found that 89% of investors consider ESG issues in their investment approaches.

Additionally, there are around US$2.5 trillion in ESG assets under fund management. And with rising interest rates putting a dampener on investment (including in Africa), scoring well on those metrics may become more important than ever. 

But for African fintechs the case for ESG goes beyond becoming investable. Implemented properly, the principles behind ESG make a great deal of business sense. As an illustration of how much of a boost it can be to a business, a study by accounting firm Moore Global found that companies with strong ESG principles saw their profits grow 9.1% in the three years between 2019 and 2022.

In other words, the fintechs that get ESG right won’t just have an easier time attracting investment, they’ll also be better poised for growth, sustainability and profitability. 

Why ESG works 

Before looking into how African fintechs can put together the kind of ESG frameworks that encourage growth and investment, it’s worth taking a deeper look at why it makes good business sense (outside of the already strong investment case) to invest in ESG. 

One of the most powerful is the African environmental context. According to the Africa Development Bank, for example, Africa is the continent most vulnerable to climate change.

Any fintech that understands this and works to ensure that its operations are sustainable isn’t just helping mitigate the effects of climate change on the planet, it’s also helping ensure a future environment in which it’s more likely to survive and thrive. 

Of course, ESG isn’t just about the environment. Its second social pillar has an equally important role to play. For fintechs this can look like ensuring that they hire diversely, support MSMEs, and contribute positively to employment in areas where it’s needed most. But perhaps even more importantly, it also includes financial inclusion.  

Choosing to hire diversely has obvious societal benefits: for example it means that previously marginalised groups are able to participate in the economy at much higher levels. But it also comes with significant business benefits. And the higher up the organisation those hires climb, the greater the accrued benefits are.

According to the Boston Consulting Group, companies with above average diversity in their management team report 19% higher innovation revenues than those with lower diversity. 

Supporting micro, small, and medium-sized businesses also benefits fintechs. For starters, they make up a large customer base (particularly for B2B-focused fintechs) on the continent. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are approximately 44 million SMEs.

These enterprises not only serve as the engine of many economies across the African continent, but they also represent a segment historically ignored and under-served by the more traditional financial services players.

By providing products and services which speak directly to the pain points of micro and small enterprises, fintechs can not only tap into a fast growing and profitable segment, but can have a positive impact on the overall economic development and prosperity in the country in which they operate.

Growing financial inclusion in the region, meanwhile, is absolutely critical. At present, just 43% of people in sub-Saharan Africa have a formal bank account. That makes it difficult to access things like vehicle, home, and business loans that can be used to grow income. It also means that any savings the unbanked have can’t be used for wealth generating investments.

Across the region, fintechs are helping people overcome those barriers by expanding financial services such as digital banking, microfinancing, and digital payments to people who wouldn’t previously have access to them. 

The final pillar within the ESG framework, focuses on governance and this is often an overlooked and misunderstood pillar. I am an avid advocate and loud champion of strong corporate governance workings, but I am often asked how strong governance arrangements actually help an organisation thrive and grow. 

Many people equate good governance with rigid structures and bureaucratic processes, but I respectfully disagree with these assertions. The truth is that a solid corporate governance foundation, coupled with the right corporate culture, has exactly the opposite effect.

It frees an organisation from confusion and unnecessary work. It allows for decisions to be made more freely by people who have been empowered to take decisions. It ensures that key decisions are placed with and taken by the most appropriate individuals within an organisation. And it allows for a dynamic, organised, and agile organisation. 

Examples of good governance practices every fintech should have in place include transparent decision-making processes, ethical behaviour, and accountability to stakeholders. This, in turn, helps build trust with customers, investors, and (increasingly stringent) regulators; fostering long-term sustainability and growth.            

Building the right frameworks 

Of course, claiming to be ESG compliant and having an effective ESG framework are two different things. While there are a variety of approaches that can be taken in doing so, at MFS Africa we take a three-pillared approach that focuses on “setting”, “measuring”, and “reporting” the impact we have in local communities and across the Africa continent. 

During the “setting” phase, we outline the parameters which will guide the organisation in its ambition to build a strong impact-driven organisation with a clear ESG approach. Having done that, we measure against those parameters and then report transparently on those measurements. 

While each organisation should tailor its ESG framework according to its individual needs and context, we’ve found this model to be the one best suited to us. It’s helped us grow to be the kind of organisation that can connect more than 500 million mobile money wallets across 40 African countries, supporting over 300,000 agents and providing access to financial services for millions of Africans. 

A policy worth getting right 

Ultimately, despite dire predictions from the extremes of the political landscape, it’s unlikely that ESG will go away soon.

Even if the label disappears, it’s now so entrenched in the way that investors do business, that it’ll remain an important consideration. And that’s because the companies that do ESG well share many of the hallmarks of good, investable companies.

As the African fintech sector continues to grow, its participants should ensure they’re taking a proactive and positive approach to ESG. This will transform the sector beyond “doing” good to “being” good – good for the economy, good for society and good for stakeholders.

MFS Africa will now gain access to ThetaRay’s SONAR SaaS solution, including AI-powered AML transaction monitoring and sanctions list screening, enabling it to stay a step ahead of complex and emerging financial crime typologies, and increase growth opportunities with a trusted and secure service.

MFS Africa has made significant acquisitions in the past year, acquiring Baxi, a leading super-agency network in Nigeria, and the US-based fintech GTP, a top processor of prepaid cards across the African continent.

“As MFS Africa continues to expand its business across Africa and focuses on enabling new use-cases, ThetaRay’s advanced platform assures the company an efficient and effective solution that can support our increasing payment volumes, while reducing exposure to risk from financial crimes,” said Patrick Gutmann, Managing Director of MFS Africa.

MFS Africa’s full-service digital payments network connects over 400 million mobile money wallets, over 200 million bank accounts and over 150,000 agents to enable cross-platform and cross-border payments for remittance companies, mobile network operators, banks, non-bank financial institutions, and global merchants.

“Moving from a rules-based solution to a sophisticated AI platform is a game-changer for compliance, thanks to its new breed of intelligence that drastically reduces false positives and enables us to detect unknown cases,” said Funmi Dele-Giwa, General Counsel and Head of Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) at MFS Africa.

“We take our role in safeguarding the integrity of payments systems very seriously, and this partnership with ThetaRay exemplifies our approach to a strong governance and control environment.”

“MFS Africa is leading the fintech revolution in Africa by enabling digital payments that are accessible to connect all people to the financial world,” said Mark Gazit, CEO of ThetaRay.

“ThetaRay is thrilled to partner with a forward-thinking company whose strategy is to provide new technology that helps open the financial ecosystem and promote financial and economic inclusion. ThetaRay’s advanced AI enables the trust needed by new financial players to be accepted into the system, helping grow business and revenues.”

SONAR is based on an advanced form of AI called “artificial intelligence intuition” that makes better decisions with no bias or thresholds, offering customers a risk-based approach to effectively identify truly suspicious cases and create a full picture of customer identities including across complex, cross-border transaction paths.

This enables the rapid discovery of both known and unknown money laundering threats, with a peerless 95% detection rate and up to 99% reduction in false positives compared to rules-based solutions.