The SME Finance Forum has launched its Africa Regional Chapter to provide a dedicated platform for region-specific dialogue, peer learning, and action. The Chapter recognizes that Africa’s SME challenges and opportunities are distinct: fragmented markets, high perceived risk, limited risk-sharing mechanisms, uneven access to trade finance, and the persistent exclusion of women-led, youth-owned, and rural enterprises. Addressing these issues requires locally grounded solutions, stronger alignment between public and private actors, and institutions that are equipped to move from pilots to scale.
This roundtable, convened at the Inclusive FinTech Forum in Kigali, marks a key milestone in advancing the Africa Chapter’s mission. It brings together banks, non-bank financial institutions, development finance institutions, policymakers, and trade enablers to examine how Africa’s SME finance ecosystem can evolve from resilience-building to sustainable growth.
The discussion will focus on how skills, digital innovation, and ecosystem coordination can unlock scalable, risk-appropriate financing models for SMEs across sectors and markets.
Session 1: Building Skills and Talent for the SME Finance Ecosystem
A resilient SME finance ecosystem depends not only on capital, but on the skills and capabilities of institutions that design, distribute, and manage SME financial products. This theme will examine persistent talent gaps across banks, fintechs, regulators, and support institutions—particularly in areas such as SME credit underwriting, value-chain risk assessment, digital product design, data analytics, and climate- and impact-aligned finance.
Session 2: Skilling SMEs for Deeper Participation in Value Chains
Access to finance alone is insufficient if SMEs lack the operational, digital, and financial skills required to integrate into local, regional, and global value chains. This theme will focus on how skilling SMEs—particularly in agri-business, manufacturing, trade, and services—can improve bankability, reduce credit risk, and unlock new financing opportunities.
Session 3: Optimizing Digital Innovations for SME Finance
Digital innovation has transformed access to payments, credit, and trade finance across Africa—but fragmentation, uneven adoption, and limited interoperability continue to constrain impact. This theme will explore how digital solutions can be better optimized and integrated to support SME growth at scale, rather than remaining isolated pilots.
Outcome Focus
The roundtable aims to surface actionable insights, partnership opportunities, and policy considerations that can inform the Africa Chapter’s work programme and solution-building initiatives. By aligning skills development, SME capability-building, and digital innovation, the session will contribute to a shared roadmap for scaling SME finance in Africa in a way that is resilient, inclusive, and sustainable.
