Other Local Factors Affecting Financial Product Design in Africa

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Other factors to consider when creating financial products for Africa include the lack of internet access and the high cost of broadband in remote areas, and the limited capabilities of the feature phones and cheap smartphones that are predominantly used across the continent. Naturally, financial products that require internet access will be useless in many rural regions where broadband is weak or non-existent. Likewise, financial service apps that require high computing memory space or use up large amounts of broadband data will further exclude customers in these areas. As the web design and development consultant Oliver Lindberg points out, “Lower spec devices, which are more common in emerging markets, have less built-in storage and higher data costs. This means many people can only afford a few megabytes of data here and there.” Fintech companies like Opay and VodaPay are designing around this challenge by building super apps italy whatsapp number data that bundle a suite of services, helping to minimize the number of apps customers need to install on their phones.

It is also critical for digital financial services to provide localized marketing and customer support. In-person outreach like town halls, engagement at local shopping markets or door-to-door meetings can be vastly more efficient than Western advertising methods like billboards or digital ads. Additionally, whether the customer is interacting with a human or a bot, prioritizing customer support through helplines in local languages will create more affinity and lead to better resolutions than, say, email.

As the above-mentioned factors illustrate, local contexts matter in Africa. For financial inclusion to spread there – particularly among informal customers with little or no prior interaction with formal institutions – financial service providers will need to combine innovation with localization in product design.