Melvin Hosea Angula, CEO of Letshego Microfinancial Services Namibia (LMFSN), today addressed global policymakers at the
Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Global Policy Forum 2025, sharing how AI, digital identity, and microfinance can work together to close the financial inclusion gap across Africa.
Angula’s talk, titled “Leveraging Technology to Improve Supervision and Regulation: The Taamba Maris Case Study,” highlighted how Namibia’s first instant mobile credit product, developed in partnership with MTC Maris, is transforming access to finance while giving regulators unprecedented real-time visibility.
“We built Taamba Maris not just for speed, but for trust. By embedding safeguards like one-loan-at-a-time, transparent pricing, and automated compliance, we have shown that innovation and regulation can successfully coexist,” said Angula.
Key Highlights from the Presentation
- AI for Responsible Lending: Taamba Maris uses real-time wallet transaction data and machine learning to approve loans in under 60 seconds with 95% accuracy.
- Consumer Protection by Design: Borrowers are protected by loan caps, cooling-off periods, and upfront fee disclosure, countering loan shark practices that charge up to 40% per month.
- Scalable Impact: Already, close to 500 000 Namibians are eligible to access to safer, regulated credit via basic mobile phones, many for the first time.
- RegTech Innovation: Automated reporting and supervisory dashboards give NAMFISA and the Bank of Namibia live oversight, marking a regional benchmark for SupTech adoption.
Broader Letshego Strategy Across Africa
Angula also tied Namibia’s success to Letshego Africa Holdings Limited’s wider AI readiness strategy across 11 markets, noting:
- Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, and Namibia rank highest in AI preparedness, offering fertile ground for fintech innovation.
- Yet, as Angula cautioned, “AI readiness is not the same as business readiness.” Markets with strong regulations and partnerships, even with lower readiness scores, delivered Letshego’s most profitable results.
- Letshego is now scaling through regional innovation hubs in Nairobi, Accra, and Gaborone, aligned with AFI’s policy frameworks, to replicate safe, people-centred digital finance models.
A Call to Regulators Worldwide
In his closing remarks, Angula urged global regulators to:
- Establish regulatory sandboxes with clear guardrails.
- Invest in SupTech systems for real-time analytics.
- Foster public-private partnerships to accelerate innovation.
- Build capacity for supervisors to manage emerging digital risks.
“Technology-enabled supervision doesn’t just reduce risk – it creates trust, transparency, and financial opportunity,” Angula concluded. “With AFI’s global network, every regulator here can leapfrog infrastructure challenges and put people at the centre of digital finance.”