Download the 2017 SAM report

What is the SAM?

The African Microfinance Week (referred to as 'the SAM', based on the French acronym) is a major conference dedicated to the development of financial inclusion in Africa that takes place every two years.

Previous editions of the SAM were held in Arusha (Tanzania) in 2013, in Dakar (Senegal) in 2015, and in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in 2017.
The 4t^h SAM will take place from the:
 

21^st to 25^th October, 2019 
 In Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)

Why Burkina Faso?

The main ambition of the SAM is to provide a unified African platform for exchange on the microfinance issues facing the African continent by bringing together all the professionals of the sector – investors, MFIs, researchers, banks, networks, innovators, governments and others.

The SAM is a whole week to:

• Identify, discuss and celebrate the innovations, impacts and contributions that the African inclusive finance sector has made over the past 3-5 years toward achieving the SDGs;
• Analyze the gaps and challenges currently facing the sector and catalyze promising solutions to address them;
• Reinforce the sector’s commitment to and tools for effective impact measurement and business case analysis;
• Stimulate new and enrich existing relationships with potential partners and allies across the African inclusive finance sector, including promoting actionable plans and follow-through after the conference;
• Leverage the Luxembourg Cooperation’s financial expertise and enhance the agency’s role as a key partner for inclusive finance practitioners working to achieve the SDGs in Africa;
• Rally participants around how to focus their individual and collective energy in order to make substantial progress toward the 2030 milestones that we will reassess at SAM 2021.

More than a conference... 

The SAM conference will focus on the theme "Pathways toward impact: African Inclusive Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals".
It will last 2 days: Tuesday, 22 October and Wednesday, 23 October.
The 3 other days of the SAM - Monday, October 21 ; Thursday, October 24 ; and Friday, October 25 - will be reserved for other events:

- the Investors' Fair: a networking event for investors and African MFIs, organised as speed-dating sessions that encourage the creation of new partenrships between these actors.

- the Innovators' Fair: presentation of innovative tools and services for national, regional and panafrican use that can improve the performance of MFIs as they support SMEs.

- Research Meets Africa: discussion between international and african researchers and professionals about the development of the inclusive finance sector in Africa.

- other related events: twenty free trainings and workshops, a Gala Dinner...

SAM 2019: It’s all about IMPACT!

This year, the conference will be on the following topic:

Pathways Toward Impact:
African Inclusive Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals
 

A flourishing sector led by innovations...
Indeed, the African inclusive finance sector is flourishing. It has achieved substantial impacts, developed promising innovations and created important new inroads to cross-sectoral collaboration and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Financial inclusion across the continent climbed from 24% to 43% between 2011 and 2017, led in large part by digital innovations. Sub-Saharan Africa has become the world leader in mobile money with 21% of adult Africans owning a mobile money account.

Meanwhile, innovations in rural finance and the use of satellite and SMS technology are reinforcing the availability and impact of crop insurance and farm loans, thereby enabling some of Africa’s smallholder farmers to increase yields and financial resilience. And multisectoral partnerships in health and sanitation are leading to better health outcomes that improve productivity, enhance financial services performance and help make economic growth possible.

...in a context of extreme poverty
Africa is trailing the rest of the world in poverty reduction and progress toward the SDGs. While the percentage of Africans living in extreme poverty has declined in recent years, 33% of Africans are still extremely poor, and the absolute number of poor people has risen dramatically.
Economic and social progress are not keeping pace with the accelerated population growth, and the urban population is projected to double in the next few decades. Climate change and unrest are leading to rising hunger and migration that reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty. Youth unemployment is stagnant or on the rise. And African women remain persistently excluded from financial services and economic opportunity.
 

Together towards the SDGs
The SDGs provide an ambitious vision for 2030: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth and reduced inequalities for all. Inclusive finance has a vital role to play in each of these goals. But in order to tackle these interrelated challenges and achieve measurable change throughout the region, we need to come together, leverage our successes, measure our progress and coordinate our efforts. We have 12 short years to make tremendous strides and attain the 2030 benchmarks. SAM 2019 is an opportunity for key sector stakeholders to come together to assess the contributions of inclusive finance toward achieving SDGs.

Themes of the SAM 2019
Through a range of plenary events and breakout sessions, SAM 2019 will address the following themes, among others:

• Agricultural Finance
• Macro-Level Alignment with SDGs
• Digital Finance and Fintech
• Cash Transfers
• Small & Medium Enterprise Development and Youth Employment
• Gender Inequality

Five reasons to participate in the SAM

Organisers of the SAM 2019

The SAM is organized by ADA with the support of the Luxembourg’s Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs.
It is also organised by the African networks: 

• MAIN (Microfinance African Institutions Network)
• AFRACA (Association Africaine du Crédit Rural et Agricole) 
• APSFD-BF (Association Professionnelle des Systèmes Financiers Décentralisés du Burkina Faso)

These organisers aim to provide a unified African platform for exchange and dialogue on the microfinance issues of the African continent, while promoting the collaboration of all actors in inclusive finance.