On September 7th, 2017 – Enterprise Partners hosted an event for banks and other stakeholders in Digital Financial Services (DFS): Assessment of Transaction Pools for DFS.
The Consultant, Anne Marie van Swinderen, started by taking the audience more than 1000 years back in time, to China where bank-notes became widely accepted as money. In the 10th century for the first time, humanity switched from using coins as money to paper promissory notes. This is arguably what triggered the enormous growth and prosperity of China the centuries to follow. Paper notes made international trade possible, led to the intensive trade along the Silk Road and resulted in a first wave of globalization.
Anne Marie added that it is important to realize that paper bank-notes were already invented in 7thcentury but it took 300 years before people took them up at scale.
Today, we arrived at a decisive point for Ethiopia; will Ethiopia be able to make the next step in money and adopt Digital Financial Services? Will Ethiopia need another 300 years to do this or is it going to happen in three years? The audience of the workshop was reminded that they are the group who will determine whether Ethiopia can soon benefit from DFS. “It is in your hands whether Ethiopia will have the huge push of its economy and will have a leap in economic growth for all Ethiopians poor and rich to enjoy.” Anne Marie said.
Enterprise Partners certainly pushes for widespread digital finance to be available in three years.
L-IFT, http://l-ift.com/ Consulting company commissioned to research the Ethiopian Transaction Pools.