Invest in Africa (digital - reduced)

Shared Growth - using our assets and expertise to develop
commercial solutions to the challenges facing society
After a decade of economic growth, Africa’s economies are still
struggling to realise a more inclusive prosperity, and much of the
continent’s population continues to lag behind on various indicators
of human development.
With this in mind Barclays Africa is leading a shift from traditional
grant making and corporate responsibility programmes, towards
an integrated approach that delivers both shareholder and social
returns. By embracing a philosophy of shared value, we are seeking
to more deliberately apply our substantial resources – both assets
and expertise – to unlocking solutions to social challenges through
innovative products, services, and partnerships. This is Shared
Growth.
By tackling social challenges through commercial business models,
Barclays Africa is able to offer self-sustaining and scalable solutions
that increase access to education and employment opportunities
through skill building, support small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
that help grow the economy, and provide wider, more convenient
access to appropriate financial services in our communities.
Forging strong public-private partnerships is key to creating shared
value that can deliver maximum impact and reach the greatest
number of people across the continent. As such we engage and
work with like-minded partners in business, government, academia
and the non-profit sector to leverage its expertise and blended
resources.
Our Shared Growth strategy therefore focuses on three key areas
where we as a business can have the greatest impact:
1. Education and Skills Development – Africa has the youngest
population in the world with an estimated 50% aged between
15 and 24. Nearly half of all youth on the continent are not
enrolled in any form of education, employment or training. We
have committed $101m* over the next three years to support
education and skills development, targeting youth in the 10
countries where we operate, and are implementing a number of
initiatives as part of this investment:
• ReadytoWork, our free, online and face-to-face pan-African
employability initiative aims to upskill young people who
are setting out to find employment or create selfemployment
through learning material that covers work,
people, money and entrepreneurial skills.
• Our Scholarship programme, which launched in 2016 in
partnership with several universities, supports and facilitates
access to quality education for students who would
otherwise not be able to pursue and complete their studies
due to the unaffordability of fees, and lack of access to
funding.
• Our capacity building programmes for education institutions
and agencies seek to improve the administration of schools
by providing financial management and governance training
to Department of Basic Education staff and School Governing
Body Members.
2. Enterprise Development – On average, SMEs account for
50% of the total labour force in Africa. The SME sector is critical
to enabling economic growth. By offering them innovative
financial solutions and business development support services
(through our Enterprise Development Centres, incubation/
acceleration programs, and lending platforms), we are nurturing
the entrepreneurs of tomorrow and have committed to raise
$94m* with the purpose of supporting Africa’s growing and
diverse SME sector.
3. Financial Inclusion – Africa currently has the highest financial
exclusion rates in the world. Approximately one in four adults
has access to a formal bank account, and an estimated 326
million adults in Africa remain unbanked. We are focusing on
enabling digital and non-digital access to underserved
consumers through real banking and value-add products and
services to promote wider more convenient access to financial
services.
We are committed to Africa and its people and we will continue to
put into practice the principles that drive our vision of Shared Growth
and prosperity.
For more information visit our website at
http://www.barclaysafrica.com/barclaysafrica/Citizenship
*Average rand-USD exchange rate as at July 2016
Barclays Africa Group Limited is authorized as a bank controlling company by the South African Reserve Bank. Registered in South Africa. Registration number is 1986/003934