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Africa Regional Chapter

America/New_York
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Africa Regional Chapter

SME Finance Forum - Africa Chapter Launch Roundtable

Building upon the success and momentum of the Global SME Finance Forum 2025 conference in Johannesburg, there is growing interest among African stakeholders to enhance collaboration and achieve greater impact.

Accordingly, as part of our strategic initiatives, we are establishing an AFRICA regional chapter within the SME Finance Forum. The primary objective is to convene our members and affiliates across Africa to pursue collective action aimed at scaling SME finance, fostering innovative solutions, and creating a cohesive ecosystem that aligns efforts and initiatives throughout the region.
 

Agenda

Description 

Speakers 

Introduction and SMEFF focus on Africa (10 min) 

  • Welcome and Introduction  
  • Regional Chapter Vision
  • Co-chairs and Affiliates intros

Mr. Qamar Saleem 
Global Head, SME Finance Forum 

Ms. Minerva Adei Kotei  

Africa Chapter lead, SME Finance Forum 

Africa regional perspectives (10 min)  

  • IFC Strategic Focus on SME in Africa  
  • Alliance For Entrepreneurship in Africa, SME Initiatives and MSME Gap insights 

Mr. Riadh Naouar , Manager Advisory and Upstream, Financial Institutions Group, IFC Africa  
Mr. Frank Doumba, Chief Program Manager, and Mr. Colin Shepherd, Consultant, IFC, World Bank Group, Africa  

Growing and supporting SMEs (40) 

Segment 1: Role of Banks and leading innovations 

  • What are the key challenges and opportunities you are seeing in your respective markets,  
  • What you foresee as key roles banks need to play in Africa to scale SME financial services   

 

Segment 2: Underserved communities and roles of NBFIs/MFIs (10 min) 

  • How are the needs of underserved communities (women SMEs, youth, rural) different and how to measure success  
  • How dominant are NBFIs/MFIs in Africa and what needs to happen to scale their support to SMEs  

Segment 3: Development Finance and risk mitigation instruments for SMEs in Africa  

  • What role can the development sector, especially local development banks play  
  • Has risk mitigation instruments and credit guarantees scaled in Africa, what are lessons learnt  

Segment 4: Making trade and value chains work for SMEs 

  • How can cross border trade work for SMEs and how SMEs in Africa need to be equipped  
  • What opportunities exist in important sectors such as Infrastructure, Agriculture, Tourism, Manufacturing, Health and Human Services 

Segment 1 Speakers:  

Ms. Andiswa Bat, Group Managing Executive, Nedbank Business and Commercial Banking  

Mr. Collins Wanyonyi 
Director SME Banking, Equity Bank (Kenya) Ltd    

Mr. Innocent Enock Yonazi, Director; Investor Relations, Sustainability & Corporate Communication, NMB, Tanzania 

Segment 2 Speakers:  

Mr. Mikhail VELICHKO, CEO, AccèsBanque Madagascar 
Ms. Angela Wambugu, Director, Advisory Services, Africa, Women's World Banking 

 

 

Segment 3 Speakers:  

Mr. Ayodele Ojosipe,  Head, Business Development & Relationship Management, Development Bank of Nigeria   
 
Mr. Said Jabrani, CEO, Tamwilcom , Morocco  

 

Segment 4 speakers:  

Ms. Habiba Ben Barka, Chief of Africa Section, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 

Mrs. Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice President / Ody Akhanoba, Director, SME Development, Afreximbank 

Forthcoming SMEFF and Affiliates convenings (10 mins) 

  • 10-12 Mar 2026, Kigali, Rwanda; Inclusive FinTech Forum; 15 April 2026, Washington DC, USA, Africa Fintech Summit  

 

 
Mr. Pat Patel, Regional CEO, GFTN  

Mr. Zekarias Amsalu, Co-Founder, Africa Fintech Summit 

Aligning Priorities Open Discussion 
(15 minutes) 

  • Themes and sectors to focus on  
  • Suggestions on enhancing the ecosystem of SME Finance Forum Africa Chapter  
  • What should be near term goals  

All Participants 

Closing and Next Steps 

(5 min) 

Mr. Qamar Saleem  

Global Head, SME Finance Forum