Aug 17 , 2025
Kifiya Financial Technologies and the Mastercard Foundation convened the third Kifiya Knowledge Series at the Hyatt Regency, gathering over 250 policymakers, bankers, fintech leaders, and entrepreneurs to debate how AI-powered credit can expand access for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and smallholder farmers excluded from traditional finance. The series forms part of the Sustainable Access to Finance to Enable Entrepreneurship (SAFEE) program, which has already delivered 16 billion Br in loans to 358,000 MSMEs, 99pc of them women-led, sustaining over one million jobs. By shifting from collateral-based lending to AI-driven credit scoring, partner banks are opening doors for previously underserved borrowers. Kifiya founder and CEO Munir Duri argued that most entrepreneurs are not "unbankable," but trapped by systems that fail to capture their realities. Keynote speaker Efosa Ojomo, director of the Global Prosperity Research Group, underlined that solving "non-consumption" creates vast, profitable markets while fueling inclusive growth. Panels highlighted homegrown solutions and success stories like Beza Ayalew, founder of BeSingularity, whose AI-assisted credit line expanded from 300,000 Br in 2024 to 800,000 Br by mid-2025. Mefthe Tadesse, Mastercard Foundation's country director, stressed that AI-enabled lending not only deepens financial inclusion but also generates new market opportunities for the informal economy. The forum closed with a call for scaling up the SAFEE model nationwide, urging policymakers and banks to accelerate inclusive digital credit systems, pushing AI from hype to hard reality in the financial sector.
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