The COMESA Monetary Institute (CMI) held the 22nd meeting of the Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies (MERP) Sub-Committee in Nairobi, Kenya from 2nd to 3rd October 2025. The MERP meeting was preceded by a validation workshop for country specific studies conducted by staff from COMESA Member Central Bank, in 2025 on the “Impact of Fin-tech-led Innovations on the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy”, held at the same venue from 30th September to 1st October 2025.
Arising from the validation workshop, the MERP sub-committee meeting noted that the papers, in general, examined the impact of fintech on the velocity of money in circulation, and in exceptional cases, on the money multiplier in member countries. The meeting also noted key common policy recommendations from the studies, among others, the need for modifications of monetary policy frameworks taking into account fintech innovations and enhanced legal and regulatory frameworks governing fintech to guard against regulatory arbitrage, cyber risks, contain spillovers to the macroeconomy and promoting responsible fintech innovations.
Other recommendations were the need for enhanced data collection on digital financial services to improve understanding of their impact on monetary policy transmission and promoting consumer financial literacy to encourage responsible use of FinTech platforms and limit speculative or consumption-driven inflation.
The Monetary and Exchange Rate Sub-Committee meeting further considered the training and other activities undertaken by CMI related to the MERP sub-Committee and prepared a workplan for 2026 which will be implemented by CMI. The workshop and meeting was attended by delegates from 13 COMESA member Central Banks from Burundi, DRC, Egypt, Eswatini, Kenya, Libya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.