Every year, African organizations invest millions in strategic planning. Yet research suggests that fewer than 10% successfully execute their strategies. The culprit is not poor strategy design, it's the execution gap. After 15 years of working with financial institutions, development finance organizations, and corporate leaders across Sub-Saharan
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 300 million adults remain excluded from formal credit markets. Not because they lack creditworthiness, but because they lack credit histories. For credit risk managers at banks, microfinance institutions, and digital lenders, this represents both a massive opportunity and a persistent challenge: how do you
In January 2025, a major East African microfinance institution discovered its AI-powered credit scoring model had systematically disadvantaged women entrepreneurs in rural areas. The model, deployed six months earlier to accelerate loan approvals, had learned historical biases embedded in decades of lending data. By the time the board was
Africa's trade finance gap stands at $120 billion annually. Behind this staggering number lies a fundamental challenge: the shortage of professionals equipped with practical trade finance knowledge to serve the continent's businesses. After working with financial institutions across 15 African markets, we identified a recurring pattern.
When a mid-sized Kenyan bank lost over $15 million to fraud in 2023, the subsequent investigation revealed a troubling pattern: the board had approved a high-risk strategy without fully understanding the control environment. The board risk committee met quarterly but struggled to ask the right questions. Sound familiar?
Every week at ARMA, we receive calls from talented entrepreneurs across Africa who share a frustratingly similar story: strong businesses, proven track records, growing markets, yet no access to capital. On the other side, we hear from lenders and investors who struggle to find "bankable" SMEs despite knowing
Africa faces a $277 billion annual climate finance gap. While global green bond issuance exceeds $500 billion annually, African issuances remain under 1% of this total. Yet the continent bears disproportionate climate impacts while holding immense renewable energy potential, sustainable infrastructure needs, and growing institutional investor interest. The disconnect is
Originally published April 2021, republished here as part of ARMA's continuity record. The working capital pressures the original piece described in the COVID-era have settled into a permanent feature of African corporate balance sheets. Supply chain finance (SCF) emerged from the 2008-09 global financial crisis as
Originally published April 2018, republished here as part of ARMA's continuity record. The argument has only become more urgent. A few years ago, ARMA worked with FSD Africa and IPC GmbH on a continent-wide credit-skills assessment. The headline finding was simple and uncomfortable: most African credit
Originally published April 2021, republished here as part of ARMA's continuity record. The opportunity it describes has only sharpened in the five years since. When African leaders came together to sign the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement in Kigali in 2018, the continent was engulfed in
When the Central Bank of Kenya introduced climate risk disclosure requirements in 2024, many commercial banks discovered a troubling reality: their Enterprise Risk Management frameworks, despite appearing comprehensive on paper, could not answer basic questions about portfolio exposure to drought risk or temperature impacts on agricultural lending. That was not
The conventional financial inclusion playbook in Africa has been mobile money plus microfinance. Both have done remarkable work. Both have run into the same ceiling: they extend transactional access without extending working capital that scales with the business. The SME that needs $40,000 to fulfil a confirmed buyer purchase
Development finance institutions - IFC, AfDB, EIB, FMO, Proparco, Norfund, DEG, BII - have quietly raised the bar on what they expect from African bank boards over the last 24 months. The shift is not in the headline ESG and impact requirements. It is in the board effectiveness assessment that now sits
Correspondent banking de-risking is the slow-burn structural threat to African finance that does not get the headlines it should. Global banks have been shedding nostro relationships with African counterparts at a steady rate since 2014, and the 2024 BIS data confirms the trajectory has not reversed. For a
The 2022 drought across the Horn of Africa drove non-performing loans in agricultural portfolios up by 200 to 400 basis points across multiple Tier 2 lenders we have worked with. The 2024 East African floods did similar damage, in different counties, to different crops, in the same loan books.
IFRS S1 (general sustainability disclosures) and IFRS S2 (climate-related disclosures) are no longer prospective. They are live standards. Mauritius adopted them in 2024. Nigeria has issued a roadmap. Kenya is consulting. The trajectory is irreversible. What we are seeing inside African banks tells a different story. Three implementation gaps
Basel III.1, the final post-crisis prudential framework, is now on the implementation runway across African banking regulators. Kenya's CBK, Nigeria's CBN, South Africa's SARB, and Uganda's BoU have each issued draft positions over the 2024-2025 cycle. The compliance windows
The Bank of Uganda's ESG Risk Management Framework came into force in mid-2025, and full compliance demonstration is required by July 2026. As of June 2026, most Ugandan and East African banks are treating the deadline as a compliance checkbox. They should be treating it as a