The FPM “Fund for Financial Inclusion in the Democratic Republic of Congo” and Élan RDC will organize the Brancheless Banking – Mobile Money “Remote Banking” forum on Thursday 28 April at the FPM headquarters. The general objective of this forum is to identify and analyse opportunities (functional, operational, financial techniques,…) for the implementation of a BRANCHLESS BANKING system, as a catalyst for access to financial services in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This meeting is intended to be a forum for exchanges between representatives of financial institutions, mobile phone operators, small and medium-sized enterprises, development partners and donors.

This forum will include the intervention of Altai Consulting to describe the main international trends in Mobile Money, the main discoveries and innovations in the field of customer education, the development of agent networks, the development of new products, as well as the main trends in the DRC. Having worked in collaboration with Elan RDC, Altai produced an in-depth study in 2014 on Mobile Money; this forum will also be an opportunity to present some quantified results of the said study.

In addition to Altai’s presentation, the Branchless Banking forum will be enriched by the experience of products developed in the DRC by telecommunications networks, including Airtel Money’s “Libiki” and M-Pesa’s “Payday Advance”, the FINCA Express network’s banking services and products distribution channels. Elan DRC will also present the experiences of the joint education and communication campaign of Airtel, Tigo and Vodacom.
This forum will be the result of a bilateral partnership between FPM and Elan RDC, two institutions based in the DRC working for financial inclusion in the DRC.

Indeed, FPM, Fund for Financial Inclusion in DR Congo, was initially created in November 2010 as a non-profit association at the initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), German Financial Cooperation (KfW) and the World Bank, in close collaboration with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Its mission is in line with the national microfinance policy and strategy in the DRC and contributes to poverty reduction in the DRC by promoting the development of a sustainable supply of financial services accessible to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and low-income households throughout the country.

DRC Elan is a private sector development program that aims to improve the functioning of markets in the DRC, in order to increase the incomes of more than one million low-income men and women by 2020. We partner and provide our expertise to market players, such as companies, financial institutions and professional associations, to design and facilitate the introduction of sustainable and innovative changes in the industry that will help build a more efficient and inclusive economy. Élan RDC is implemented by the consulting firm Adam Smith International (ASI) and supported by the British Cooperation.