FSD Mozambique: Financial Services Deepening

Project description / objective

To increase financial inclusion and access to formal financial services especially by women, youth and the rural low-income population, as well as small businesses who lack access to appropriate and accessible financial services.

FSD Mozambique (FSDMoç) uses a making markets work for the poor (M4P / MSD) approach. It works with other stakeholders to identify constraints within the financial sector. The project pilots new interventions, promotes innovation and contributes to policy reforms and changes in regulation. The end goal is to offer a broad range of quality financial services provided by a stable and competitive financial system.

[FSDmoç continues beyond 2021 and the end of this programme funding. Further information can be found at www.fsdmoc.org.mz]

Market systems focus

Mobile money services

Building the mobile money services market to significantly increase access to finance.

Micro-insurance

Building the micro-insurance digital distribution market by working with insurance companies and the regulators to make it more affordable.

Regulatory support for investment

Improving the regulatory framework to promote incentives to attract foreign investors into Mozambique. And by doing so, to bring innovations by fintechs and digital financial services to develop new products to meet the needs of Mozambicans and increase financial inclusion.

Regulators need to have the required knowledge and skills to support the process of innovation and enable a broad, yet robust, regulatory framework that supports an inclusive market.

Programme interventions

Mobile money services

Digital finance
FSDMoç strengthens the capacity of financial services through training to develop their digital finance offerings.

Agent banking system pilot
Piloting an agent banking system to expand the business model for formal financial services to reach underserved populations in remote and rural areas.

Training agents
Expansion of mobile money systems by providing technical training to banking agents.

Micro-insurance

Training
Training on regulation and supervision of micro-insurance.

Institutional support
Support to the Insurance Supervision Institute of Mozambique (ISSM) to design a road map towards a conducive ecosystem for microinsurance.

Regulatory support for investment

Regulatory sandbox
Creating a regulatory ‘sandbox’ to conduct live experiments that test new solutions and models for fintechs, in a controlled environment under the regulator's supervision.

Training
Supporting capital markets through the training of Stock Exchange consultants.

Stakeholder dialogue
Creating a platform for stakeholder dialogue to encourage interoperability within the financial services industry.

Notable results (systemic change, poverty impact)

Mobile money services

The agent banking system pilot has resulted in changes in the behaviour of consumers and banks.

• 60,000 individuals have had improved access to digital financial services with BancABC and Letshego
• There is increased trust and confidence in the system by customers as a result of being able to make more informed choices about using phones as a banking platform
• There has been an institutional shift in banks towards working with customers in the field

A financial inclusion survey conducted by FinScope reported an18 per cent increase in the uptake of non-bank financial services between 2014-19. This has been driven by the increase of mobile money services available in Mozambique. For example, over a two-year period, the M-Pesa service had an increase of 3 million customers of which 1.2 million came from the work of FSDMoç.

FSDMoç continues to encourage the industry to use FinScope data to drive the targeted expansion of financial services such as mobile money.

Micro-insurance

FSDMoc enabled the industry and the regulator to develop a roadmap implementation plan for micro-insurance initiatives. Providers are now better equipped to bring diverse micro insurance products to the market.

• Seven new inclusive micro-insurance solutions were ready to be piloted in 2020
• 50 professionals from the insurance industry, including five from the regulator, were trained on inclusive insurance

Capacity-building at the Instituto de Supervisão de Seguros de Moçambique (ISSM) influenced the regulator to consider changes in the regulatory framework for micro-insurance.

FSDMoç has supported market players with relevant content design for consumer education campaigns focused on micro-insurance segment and dissemination models, with greater impact on the low-income population. For example, the Fintech Association established by FSDMoç is currently supporting the development of a product that will offer customers access to insurance packages through mobile platforms.

Regulatory support for investment

The launch of the Sandbox incubator project in 2018 has been a significant development in creating a start-up ecosystem. By working as a mitigator for risk, facilitating dialogue on regulation and providing a safe space for Fintechs to innovate, the Sandbox initiative of FSDMoz and the Banco de Moçambique has contributed to increasing financial inclusion in Mozambique. The sandbox acts as an enabler for Fintechs to rapidly build and test their product/service in the market using a controlled environment. This approach allows the regulator to work closely with fintechs and build the level of understanding needed to regulate and create attractive frameworks for start-ups.

Direct results include the establishment of a Fintech Association and entry of new players in the financial space. The Fintech Association has been established to promote the use and development of new technologies for the financial and insurance sector in Mozambique. Importantly, the Sandbox has demonstrated to financial service providers the role that Fintechs can play, shifting their perception from being viewed as competition to potential collaborators.

FSDMoç contributed to capacity-building training of in-house consultants at the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM) to help implement initiatives promoting the revision of capital market legislation and the introduction of new products. The strengthening of BVM capacity has led to the listing of nine companies by 2019 (125 per cent increase since 2017) and an increase of 23,257 investors in 2019 (216 per cent increase since 2017). These measures will benefit the market and the stock exchange by enabling secondary market development and capital market growth, critical for long-term overall sustainability of initiatives implemented by FSDMoç.

FSDMoç facilitated the drafting of an interoperability proposal for the mobile money institutions (M-PESA, MKESH and E-MOLA) which was submitted to the Central Bank (BdM) and subsequently approved, thus authorising the e-wallet operators to interoperate. This will increase access to mobile money services which are shown to increase financial inclusion.

Overall Results

• From 2014 - 2020, FSDMoc recorded 1,031,446 new individuals (including 375,026 women), previously financially excluded, using financial services
• FSDMoc has reached 1,148 SMEs who have benefited from new solutions, financial products and services
• Due to FSDMoc interventions regulators have shown great interest in promoting Digital Financial Services

[uploaded October 2020]