Following previous years, Sofie has been asked to speak at Money 2020 Europe in Amsterdam this year (June 3 – 5, 2019). She will be attending all days of the conference as well as being on stage so if you’re planning to be there, she’d love to meet up as well as see you at her sessions.
EWPN: Eyes on Africa: What the world can learn from emerging markets
Wednesday 5 June, 12:00 – 12:30 (30min)
EWPN Conference
Moderators: Sofie Blakstad, Joy Macknight
Panel: Dr Anino Emuwa, Founder & Managing Director, Avandis Consulting Grace Camara, Founder, RemitFund
Fintech at the Frontier: unlocking opportunities for remote communities in Niger
Wednesday 5 June, 15:10 – 15:25 (15min)
Tech Combustion Stage
Speaker: Sofie Blakstad
450 million small and microbusinesses make up over half of global employment. Yet most of them fail. In developing economies most lack access to financial services, direct market access and ownership rights, leaving them highly vulnerable. But these entrepreneurs are key to supporting our growing population’s food needs and sustaining environments to prevent climate change-induced mass migration. Illiteracy, poor infrastructure, conflict, corruption and climate change are big challenges, but frontier countries present opportunities to leapfrog traditional financial services, as demonstrated by the work hiveonline is doing with CARE International in the most undeveloped country in the world, Niger.