The Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub Due to Launch in December after Appointment of New CEO

After two years of intensive development, the Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub (MAFH) will be launching on the 5th of December.

Africa has immense potential for FinTech solutions, with 52% of all mobile transactions made to and from Africa, in spite of only 20% of the continent’s residents owning a bank account. Africa’s population is predicted to overtake China in 2025 with consumer spend reaching $1.3trn by 2030. In short, Africa is forecast to be one of the biggest growth stories over the next 20 years, yet less than 1% of FinTech investment has been made in Africa in recent years.

The Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub has a clear vision of changing the outlook for the whole continent by acting as a catalyst in the regulatory environment and the pan African FinTech ecosystem.

MAFH is supported by the Mauritian government, regulatory authorities and financial service providers, both big and small. After years of planning, they have appointed Michal Szymanski as CEO, a seasoned veteran in the business incubation space, whose team is now actively preparing a tech hub environment, ready to provide help to investors, corporations, academia and entrepreneurs to harness the growth potential of FinTech.

“Relative to the rest of the world, the FinTech industry in Africa has the greatest reach potential to positively influence the lives of its populations,” says Michal Szymanski, about the impact that he hopes the work of his organisation will have. “Our purpose is to serve the pan African FinTech ecosystem, in the regulatory environment and capacity building, while making Mauritius one of the world’s great FinTech hubs.This cannot be done alone or in isolation from cross border stakeholders, hence collaboration is key to unlocking Fintech innovations in Africa.”

Mike Reese, a board member of MAFH, says he has “worked closely with the financial services community over the last 15 years as part of my early efforts in designing and supporting the implementation of the IFC (International Finance Centre) status for Mauritius. I understand deeply the opportunity that it has to act as an innovator in the future of finance for the sub-continent. Being the link to capture capital and investment while attracting global innovation to ready it for the progress and benefit of Africa is a natural step for Mauritius. It has the capacity, enthusiasm and creativity to serve and benefit all stakeholders including corporates and regulators. I personally look forward to seeing this island nation grow from strength the strength as catalyst to capture the world’s attention when it comes to FinTech in Africa. “

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A private wealth transfer worth $30 trillion between baby boomers and the current generation is imminent, but with ample professional advice there is no cause for undue stress, a Jersey-based report assures.

The recent report, Flourishing Futures: Making Succession a Success, by Jersey Finance demystifies the challenges around this much-talked phenomenon, with an insight into real succession-related problems HNWs face through a series of case studies provided by law firm Bedell Cristin. Presented as a 10-point guide for trustees, families and advisers, the report draws from Jersey’s experience as an international finance centre (IFC) holding over £400 billion worth of private wealth in trusts over a 50-year period.

‘[It’s an] evolution, not revolution,’ the report describes the succession planning attitude trustees need to adapt to ensure a smooth transition of wealth. From identifying the values of the wealth founding family to analysing the impact a nuptial agreement might have on the transfer, HNWs and their advisers worldwide need a comprehensive plan to accommodate the intergenerational transaction, it says. A case study within the report shows how Bedell Cristin had used these suggestions to help the new generation of a family whose founders survived a civil war in the 1900s, transfer the wealth into a Jersey foundation to provide aid for civil war refugees.

‘Jersey is widely regarded as one of the biggest trust centres in the world – there is a responsibility and obligation on us,’ Jersey Finance CEO Geoff Cook tells Spear’s about the rationale behind the study. 'We are stewarding so much value to create the platforms and the capabilities that allow HNWs to transfer or deploy their wealth in a way that they wish to’.

The recommendations in the guide reflect the many complexities HNW families from all corners of the globe, particularly those from the Middle East and Asia, where wealth accrual is so ‘phenomenal’ that for many this will be the first transfer after over 30 years. But only a quarter of these families have a strategy in place, Cook says.

‘I don’t think you can start too early,’ he says of having a transfer plan, which he says should be the result of an in-depth conversation between founders and the next generation of proprietors.  ‘We would advise, for the high-net-worth individual, that it’s an important thing, because generational planning can take quite a long time.’

One of the main challenges HNWs and advisers face in succession planning is the sheer difference in attitudes between the old and the young, with the latter not having quite the loyalty the former might have to their respective trusted advisers. ‘The younger generation are a little bit more transactional,’ Cook notes, ‘they are a little more independent-thinking and they want information available at their fingertips at any place, any time and through any kind of medium’.

This is because client knowledge is becoming increasingly crucial, he stresses, adding that there is a case now more than ever for an understanding of how the family structures, legal setting, wishes, future priorities and culture of each HNW client will influence their style of intergenerational transfer. ‘Service demands are changing – it’s very important that financial centres and the private wealth advisers in them aren’t complacent,’ Cook warns. ‘You can become out of date, or even irrelevant.’

The report also urges for greater innovation in the private wealth space, where Jersey has been offering services as an IFC with ‘a multichannel approach’ – using the expertise of more than 13,300 ‘highly-skilled’ and experienced professionals. This new outlook to client service is part of a greater ‘lateral’ discussion around wealth that is going on globally, Cook concludes. ‘”With great wealth comes great responsibility” is a much more prevalent attitude now.’

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Identification of new preferential regimes under criterion 2.1

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• Mauritius - MU011: banks holding a banking licence under the Banking Act 2004 (new regime replacing regime MU006) (under FHTP monitoring);
• Mauritius - MU012: manufacturing activities under the Freeport zone regime (under COCG monitoring);

The following assessments were furthermore agreed by the COCG in respect of the newly identified regimes that fall under its monitoring:

• Mauritius' MU012 regime is harmful;

The COCG agreed at its meeting of 15 November 2018 that the letters seeking commitment to amend/abolish the above harmful regimes by the end of 2019 will be sent to all concerned jurisdictions before the end of 2018.

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