Minister of finance Pierre Gramegna (DP), who signed a letter of understanding with the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) on 6 September to launch the multi-donor framework, stated it “underlines Luxembourg’s commitment to join forces with like-minded partners in the promotion of economic, social and environmental sustainability.”

This multi-donor financial inclusion policy implementation facility--MD-PIF for short--will run 3 years at the outset, through 2021, with the Development Agency of France (AFD), and Germany’s Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) also taking part. 

According to the World Bank, some 33% of all adults worldwide remain unbanked, which plays a major role in financial inclusion, but “the statistics from Africa are truly astounding--a whopping 370 million people still remain unbanked and unserved out of the total population of 590 million.” 

Of those unbanked, “half of these include women, members of poor households in rural areas, or those who are not a part of the workforce”. 

In addition to focus on finance for SMEs, financial education and fintech, the MD-PIF has a  particular emphasis on gender equality and aims to support policy implementation and engagement opportunities with donors in a bid to yield high impact.