As farmers in the audience know, rural land and stock prices swing readily with peoples’ confidence about the future. The sharp rise in dairy land prices in following the GATT agreement in the early 1990s was an example of how expectations can influence asset prices. But expectations of the future can sometimes go beyond the well-founded and can turn out to be horribly wrong.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The potential of mobile phone technology to bridge the financial access barriers of distance and cost seems un-rivalled in Africa. In recognition of this, the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) brought together policymakers and regulators from 18 African countries that are AFI members to launch the African Mobile Phone Financial Services Policy Initiative (AMPI) in February 2013.