The AI Book

CHAPTER 18AI Opportunities in the African Financial Sector: Use Cases

By Charlette Desire N’Guessan¹

¹Co-Founder, , BACE Group

It is no secret that the African continent is full of opportunities. In the last ten years alone, the business environment has become eminently more attractive, and international investors are investing significant amounts of capital in startups targeting the African market. In 2018, According to WeeTracker’s report, African start-ups raised a record $725.6 million in 458 transactions. FinTech startups received the most investments in the same year with financial technologies accounting for 40% of total funding, as well as five of the top ten deals.¹ This data shows the size of the market and the opportunities that make the financial technology industry attractive. This chapter highlights some of the challenges facing financial institutions and the efforts of African startups in the digitalization process of financial services, and finally, points to several innovative solutions that are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a means of further developing the African financial sector.

Two Significant Challenges: Financial Exclusion and Cybercrime

According to the latest statistics published by the World Bank, Africa is still among the most underbanked regions in the world. Unfortunately, traditional banks are still struggling to reach the unbanked in Africa. The result is that a very large number of Africans lack access to financial services in ...