African governments place high priorityon developing their indigenous private sector to participatein and lead future growth. This goal is constrained, inpart, by the absence of a diversified financial sectorcapable of meeting the full range of the privatesector's legitimate demand for financial services,especially among small and informal businesses. A relatedand equally pressing issue is the ability of theself-employed and rural poor to sustain the economicactivities essential to their survival. Internationally, avariety of financial institutions have found ways to makelending to the poor sustainable and profitable and to takeadvantage of the lesson that even the poor self-employedrepay their loans and seek savings opportunities. Thechallenge in Africa is to build capacity in the financialsector drawing on the lessons learned from internationalbest-practice institutions. This strategy is an integralpart of the Africa Region Finance Strategy. The principalpillars of the Finance Strategy are an initial focus onachieving a healthy fundamental policy and regulatoryenvironment and concentration on building sound institutionsthrough human resource and systems development. These themesare reflected in this strategy statement, whose chiefobjective is to support deepening and diversification offinancial markets to serve the broad spectrum ofentrepreneurs found in African countries, including theself-employed poor.
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