The African continent is growing tremendously and the banking landscape is bustling  with the emergence of new regional and continental actors that are competing successfully with traditional local banks. African banks are battling to expand and launch new products and distribution strategies enabling them to build market share on previously unreached market space and increase profitability.

WSBI members in Africa are addressing recent trends in the region, providing innovative services and distribution channels, improving transaction processing speeds while expanding their market share.

Collaborating and gathering for more than two decades, WSBI members in Africa have made inroads ​in capacity building, including ICT cooperation in East Africa. WSBI’s key role as the think-tank in the expansion of savings and retail banking services to the unbanked population has impacted positively on the recent evolution of member banks in the region. 

The role of regional groups is to provide input for overall messages that are delivered by WSBI to G20 members, lobbying as necessary with regional parties, authorities and national regulatory bodies. 

It looks to work with other organisations, including the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the MasterCard Foundation and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI). 

Knowledge sharing between Africa Regional Group members help boost their business development efforts. The group aims to promote members’ best practices, to transfer the knowledge among members, fostering regional cooperation – members helping members. 

​Knowledge sharing efforts aim to highlight and address areas such as digitsation, banking innovation, financial inclusion, financing MSMEsThese efforts aim to help WSBI members reach numerical commitments to the World Bank Group Universal Financial Access 2020​ Programme outlined in the WSBI Marrakech Declaration​ and Washington Declaration.