- January 17, 2023
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Financial Sector Management
Technology is rapidly transforming financial systems around the world, creating new opportunities and introducing new risks to the financial sector. The recent COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital financial services across the globe. As a result, fintech and digital financial services have become topical among financial sector regulators as they strive to exercise sufficient oversight of the financial sector. Owing to their growing importance, the Secretariat identified fintech and digitalisation among priority areas for capacity development during the Phase VI (2022 – 2026).
Against this background, MEFMI offered an introductory e-learning course on Fintech and Digital Financial Services (DFS) from 26 September to 11 November 2022. The objective of the course was to introduce participants to the foundational aspects of the technologies spurring innovation in the financial sector and the basics of regulating fintech and digital financial services.
The training was targeted at junior to mid-level officials from ministries of finance, central banks, and other financial sector regulatory and supervisory agencies. The participants went through a variety of topics on fintech and digital finance including an overview of the technologies that are driving digitalisation and fintech, the different digital products and the risks they pose to the consumers and the financial system, and the different approaches to fintech and DFS regulation in different jurisdictions.
A total of 95 officials from six MEFMI member countries (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) participated in the course. Fifty-nine (59) percent of the participants were female while forty-one (41) percent were male.
Two resource persons, Ms Vimbai Muchedzi, a Graduate Fellow, and Mr Eugene Chaduka, an Independent Consultant were engaged to develop content for the course and mentor participants. Messrs Amon Chitsva, Kombe Kaponda, and Harish Natarajan reviewed the course materials.