Improve partnerships between Post and Money Transfer Operators for better remittance services to rural Africa

This flyer was produced in the framework of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI) to highlight the improved partnerships between the Post and Money Transfer Operators to provide remittance services in rural areas.

How post offices can leverage the impact of remittances - A set of working papers

This set of three working papers explores ways to maximize the impact of remittances delivered through post offices.

The African Postal Financial Services Initiative: A success story on remittances at the post office in Africa

The African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI) was a unique broad-based partnership led by IFAD’s Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR), and bringing together the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute (WSBI) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), and was cofinanced by the European Union (EU). The joint goal of this regional programme was to enhance competition in the African remittance marketplace through supporting and enabling African post offices in offering financial services. More specifically, it aimed at promoting a cheaper, faster, more convenient and more client-friendly transfer of remittances, particularly to rural areas, while fostering dialogue among stakeholders, regulators and policymakers.

Second African Conference on Remittances and Postal Networks

The Second African Conference on Remittances and Postal Networks was organized in the framework of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI), and took place on 15-16 November 2016 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.

Remittances at the Post Office in Africa - Serving the financial needs of migrants and their families in rural areas

This report focuses on African National Postal Operators (NPOs) as one of the several distribution channels for remittances and financial services.

African Postal Financial Services Initiative

This brochure describes the operations of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative, highlighting the unique position of postal networks for extending access to cashless payments and securing affordable financial services in rural areas.

African Postal Financial Services Initiative

The African Postal Financial Services initiative is a joint regional programme launched by IFAD and the European Commission in collaboration with the World Bank, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) – a specialized United Nations agency for the postal sector, the World Savings Banks Institute/European Savings Banks Group (WSBI/ESBG) and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). This uniquely broad-based partnership seeks to enhance competition in the African remittance market by promoting and enabling post offices in Africa to offer remittances and financial services. Post offices are ideally placed to deliver remittances in rural areas, but they often lack the business model, technology and expertise to process real-time payments such as remittances in an efficient and safe manner. The goal of this initiative is to promote, support and scale up key postal networks in Africa in the integration of remittance services.

Baseline survey on the use of rural post offices for remittances in Africa

This survey was commissioned by the Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and undertaken by Taylor Nelson Sofres, TNS-RMS, in the context of the African Postal Financial Services Initiative (APFSI).

African Conference on Remittances and Postal Networks – official report

This report proceeds from the First African Conference on Remittances and Postal Networks held in Cape Town, South Africa 2015.

Remittances and Postal Networks

The Financing Facility for Remittances (FFR) aims to expand the reach of financial services to the world's underserved rural areas. The maintenance of a network of dedicated brick-and-mortar branches throughout vast sparsely populated areas is prohibitively expensive for most forms of financial institutions, with one important exception: post offices.