THE Africa Development Bank (AFDB) in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) has announced the availability of $100million African Development Financial Inclusion Facility fund.

Konstantin Peric the Deputy Director for payment at the BMGF on Monday said that fund is being made available to advance African countries across platforms, including digital infrastructure and digital identity systems.

“This will help harmonise regulation across Africa so that these platforms cover not just countries but also regions and ultimately the whole continent.

“The ultimate goal is to be able to send money across currencies, across countries in real time within the African continent,” he said.

According to Peric, the fund is to be utilised in the area of training, deploying the digital platform and changing regulations which would extend to the grassroots within the African regions.

“Serving the poor and unbanked hasn’t been done dully by the banks today, so we need to include other players like the mobile money providers to catalyse this ecosystem which will serve the poor.

“It is not really about charity, it is bout including the unbanked, but in a way that makes sense to the private investors.”

In addition, he said the BMGF and AFDB will not be working with any politician on the project in any of the regions.

“Only government domains and entities that are involved with financial inclusion like the central banks, government agencies and private sectors will be involved.

“If we must achieve this, everybody has to be on deck,” he said.