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Box VIII.1: Priority Objectives of Selected DFIs
2. DFIs: A Crucial and Growing Role to Foster Financial Inclusion
Financial inclusion is high on DFIs’ agendas. Indeed, several institutions recognize financial inclusion as one of their top priority objectives (see Box VIII.1). Nevertheless, to our knowledge no DFI has a dedicated strategy to financial inclusion, which instead remains a component of their strategies to achieve inclusive growth and private/financial sector development. Information from the donor project database compiled by the MFW4A partnership, DFIs’ annual reports and websites, press releases, recent stocktaking exercises and research papers were gathered in the attempt of providing a brief overview of DFIs’ support to financial inclusion in Africa by looking at a representative sample of their activities at the household level, SMEs business level and in financial infrastructure.
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Box VIII.1: Priority Objectives of Selected DFIs
Multilateral DFIs
• IFC: “Our priorities are to help our clients provide broad-based financial services to individuals [...] and to promote growth and employment generation by supporting sustainable lending to small and medium enterprises.”
Regional DFIs
• AfDB: “[…] the Bank Group is committed […] to closing […] the poverty reduction gap — inadequate financial services for enterprises (particularly micro and small businesses) and households”
• EIB: “The priority objectives for the EIB’s lending activities set out in the Bank’s operational plan are: support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)...”
Bilateral DFIs
• BIO: “BIO financed regional or local intermediary structures (banks, investment funds, etc.) with a vocation to support SMEs and microfinance institutions.”
• FMO: “FMO’s 2009-2012 strategy focuses on three key sectors: access to finance (especially for SMEs in Low Income Countries)...”
Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Some examples are provided but there are other DFIs that recognize financial inclusion as a priority objective.
Source: IFC (2012a), AfDB (2012), EIB-“Strategy”. BIO-“Sectors” and Dalberg (2010).
