The Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) on Monday announced that five African firms will receive a total of US$4,438,551 to support its financial inclusion agenda in Africa.
The five companies, with projects in Burundi, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, and Zambia, were selected from among 214 firms that submitted applications to the fourth and final phase of the Fund’s rolling competition.
In 2018, the Mastercard Foundation Fund awarded US$11,814,064 to 12 companies in the first three phases of the rolling competition.
This announcement completes the Fund’s portfolio aimed at supporting innovative and scalable financial products and services that improve the lives of poor people living in rural areas of Africa.
Since its first awards in 2016, the Fund for Rural Prosperity has distributed more than US$41.5 million to companies across the continent to drive financial inclusion.
The overall portfolio now includes 38 projects spread across 15 countries in Africa (Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia).
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The African firms selected in this last phase of the rolling competition are: Lima Kwanza Limited, PROSEMA-SA (Promotion du Sésame du Mali), Savonor, Sprint Money Limited and Syecomp Ghana Limited.
“These new awardees expand and enrich the Fund’s portfolio through their innovative projects, which cut across varied sectors,” said Wambui Chege, Team Leader of the Fund for Rural Prosperity.
“The Fund is excited by the potential impact of the projects in its portfolio and will now direct its focus to project implementation, monitoring & evaluation, and sharing emerging learnings from the portfolio with financial inclusion stakeholders. We look forward to driving financial access and meeting the needs of the rural poor across Africa.”
Lindsay Wallace, Director of Strategy and Learning at the Mastercard Foundation said “This latest addition to the Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) portfolio enables poor people in rural Africa to benefit from financial services, often for the first time. More than that, it strengthens the Fund as a place where others can learn about what works at scale in driving sustainable financial inclusion for those who need it most.”
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