The Mojaloop Foundation recently welcomed Digital Frontiers (DF) as a new Promoter member to help further our mission of advancing financial inclusion. Using the Mojaloop Foundation’s open source software Mojaloop, central banks, hub operators, other financial institutions, system integrators and development banks can collaborate to bring interoperable, inclusive financial services to the entire population – including the underserved.
We interviewed Xavier Martin, Division Director at Digital Frontiers about what they do and how their contribution will make the Foundation even stronger.
Q: Please introduce yourself and your company.
DF is a not-for-profit organization launched in 2015, headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa. At DF, we focus on building capacity aligned with achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our purpose is to empower professionals to build the capabilities and human connections to create a better future. In order to do so, we build and implement comprehensive capacity-building programs that support the acceleration of global initiatives in areas like digital financial services and financial inclusion, gender equality and inclusive digital economies.
Q: Why is the Mojaloop Foundation’s mission of financial inclusion important to your company?
Joining the Mojaloop Foundation makes complete sense for our organization. Financial inclusion is fundamental for DF. A significant percentage of our courses and programs have a financial inclusion perspective, and that’s really what makes them different from our point of view. The idea is to design courses that have a long-term impact on participants who want to create real change.
Our commitment is to provide opportunities to practice and apply knowledge, with a focus on promoting peer learning, creating networking opportunities and continuous professional development opportunities to the community — which we do through our communities of practice and other activities.
Q: What excites you about joining the Mojaloop Foundation?
We have a program on instant and inclusive payment systems (IIPS) and we see many synergies between what we try to achieve with that program and the work the Mojaloop Foundation is doing. By joining the Mojaloop Foundation, we aim to be closer to the subject matter expertise of the community and keep Digital Frontiers Institute’s courses on the cutting edge.
We are really looking forward to engaging with the Mojaloop community, something we have already done in the past by inviting Mojaloop members to join our courses as guest speakers and experts.
In the future, we also want to explore how to expose students to the Mojaloop technological platform to offer them real-life scenarios, in which they can see applied concepts at work.
Q: What will DF contribute to the Mojaloop community?
So far, more than 1,500 payment professionals have participated in our IIPS program, mostly in African countries. We hope to bring our communities together and contribute to the work that the Mojaloop Foundation is doing to promote the deployment of faster and more inclusive payments systems, taking advantage of our shared commitments.
Our graduates have been participants in Mojaloop meetings and are able to present their work to the community. Our courses provide an opportunity to engage with our students and communities, apply knowledge and help provoke a long-term impact.
Learn more about DF’s work.
Connect with us to join the Mojaloop community and learn more about how you can make an impact. Be sure to follow the Mojaloop Foundation on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for all the latest.
