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[Published: Wednesday March 04 2015]

Rome, 4 March. - (ANA) – Each year more than US$60 billion in remittances is sent to and within Africa but often at great expense. Finding ways to leverage this powerful financial and development force by making remittance services more affordable and accessible to rural people is the focus of the first African Conference on Remittances and Postal Networks, 4-5 March in Cape Town, South Africa, hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Over two days, some 100 delegates from postal operators, postal banks, regulatory authorities, governments, the private sector, international organizations, civil society and others involved in the remittance market from across Africa will focus on addressing the challenges for improving the provision of remittance and financial services through postal networks in rural Africa, and share experiences and solutions.
Among the topics to be covered by the conference are market positioning of postal operators, linking remittances with financial inclusion, innovative technologies for financial inclusion, and the legal and institutional environment affecting post offices and remittances.
Remittances make a major contribution to the incomes of rural households. But at the same time, a dearth of services, lack of competition and other causes also make rural remittances enormously expensive.
Similarly, high transaction costs, limited rural payment networks, low financial literacy and consumer protection, as well as problematic regulatory environments prevent these financial flows from having greater development impact. Postal networks may have a role to play. More than 80 per cent of post offices in sub-Saharan Africa are located outside the top three cities in each country, in areas where banks are often absent. Post offices are often well placed to deliver remittances in rural areas, but they lack the business model, technology and expertise to process real-time payments in an efficient and safe manner.
With support from the European Commission, IFAD has been leading a multi-partner African Postal Financial Services Initiative which is providing technical assistance to postal networks in 11 African countries. The goal is to help postal operators offer better transfer services, modernize their payments infrastructure, reduce prices, expand their rural reach, broaden the range of financial services they offer, and market their services more effectively.
Notes to Editors

The conference is organized under the African Postal Financial Services Initiative, a joint regional programme launched by IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) in collaboration with the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the World Savings Banks Institute/European Savings Banks Group (WSBI/ESBG) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and co-financed by the European Union. This unique partnership aims to enhance competition in the African remittance market by promoting, supporting and enabling post offices in Africa to offer remittance and financial services and to foster dialogue between stakeholders, regulators and policy-makers.
 
IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided over US$16.3 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached more than 438 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized United Nations agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agriculture hub. - (ANA)

AB/ANA/ 04 March 2015  - - -
 


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