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Module 1: AI fundamentals for financial services professionals

Welcome: AI governance for financial services and how this course works
What AI is (and isn’t) in a bank or fintech
How a credit model learns
The AI lifecycle in a financial institution
Generative and agentic AI in financial services
How AI fails
Measuring performance: why accuracy can mislead
The Africa lens and ten questions to ask
Module 1 quiz

Module 2: AI across African financial services

Where AI sits across financial services
Mobile money and digital lending
Banks, microfinance and SACCOs
Fintech partnerships, embedded finance and open banking
Capital markets, asset management and pensions
Mapping opportunity and harm
Module 2 quiz

Module 3: Ethics, fairness and financial inclusion

Responsible AI principles for financial institutions
What fairness means in lending
Measuring fairness in credit
Responsible financial inclusion
Transparency, explanation and human review
Vulnerable customers, debt and collections
Module 3 quiz

Module 4: Financial services AI regulation in Africa

The regulatory landscape for AI in African finance
Data protection, credit reporting and AI
What financial supervisors expect
International laws and standards that reach African institutions
Mapping obligations for an AI use case
Assignment 1: A regulatory obligations map
Module 4 quiz

Module 5: Building an AI governance framework for financial institutions

What an AI governance framework is for
Roles, committees and three lines of defence
The AI inventory
Risk tiering
Proportionate controls for each tier
Governance for MFIs, SACCOs and fintechs
Module 5 quiz

Module 6: Data governance, privacy and alternative data

Data quality and representativeness
Alternative data for credit
Lawful basis, consent and partner data
Data protection impact assessments for financial AI
Credit bureaus, cloud and cross-border data
Privacy and security techniques for financial AI
Module 6 quiz

Module 7: Fair and explainable credit decisions

How AI is changing credit decisions
Proxy discrimination in credit
Affordability and responsible lending
Pricing, limits and cost transparency
Explaining credit decisions
A method for fair lending reviews
Assignment 2: A fair lending review
Module 7 quiz

Module 8: Model risk management for AI

What model risk is, and how AI changes it
Development standards and documentation
Independent validation of AI models
Validation challenges in African markets
Approval, change and overrides
Validating vendor and generative AI
Module 8 quiz

Module 9: Financial crime, fraud and AML

AI in AML and counter-terrorist financing
False positives, de-risking and exclusion
Fraud detection and scams
Identity, screening and deepfakes
Tipping off, accountability and AI-drafted reports
Governing financial crime AI
Module 9 quiz

Module 10: AI policy, procurement and shadow AI

Putting up an organisational AI policy
Drafting, approving and rolling out the policy
Buying AI: procurement and outsourcing
AI clauses in vendor contracts
Shadow AI in financial institutions
Responding to shadow AI
Writing acceptable-use rules for generative AI
Assignment 3: AI policy, procurement and shadow AI
Module 10 quiz

Module 11: Monitoring, evaluation and compliance assurance

Monitoring AI in use
Drift and AI incidents
Evaluating whether AI delivered
Internal compliance assurance
Three lines in practice and auditing AI
Reporting, inspection readiness and improvement
Assignment 4: A monitoring and compliance assurance plan
Module 11 quiz

Module 12: Final exam and capstone

Putting it all together: a 12-month roadmap
Final exam
Capstone: an AI governance programme for Savanna Financial Group
Where to go from here

Length: About 45 hours, self-paced
Lessons: 87
Language: English

Across Africa, AI now decides who gets a loan on their phone in minutes, which transactions are blocked as suspicious, and what a bank’s chatbot tells a customer at midnight. Done well, it can bring credit, savings and insurance to millions of people banks have never served. Done badly, it can lock people out, trap them in debt, and break the law at scale. This course trains financial services professionals to govern AI so it does the first and not the second.

Who it’s for

Risk, compliance, AML and legal officers, credit managers, model validators, product and data teams at banks, microfinance institutions, SACCOs, mobile money providers, digital lenders, fintechs, asset managers and pension funds, as well as internal auditors and financial supervisors. No technical background or coding is needed: everything is built up from first principles, with financial services examples throughout.

What you’ll be able to do

Explain how machine learning, generative AI and AI agents work in financial services, and how they fail.
Map where AI is used across banking, mobile money, digital lending, fintech, capital markets and pensions.
Apply fairness and financial inclusion principles to credit, pricing and customer treatment.
Identify the data protection, central bank, consumer credit and AML rules that apply in African markets, and international standards such as Basel and FATF expectations and ISO/IEC 42001.
Design an AI governance framework for a financial institution, and manage AI model risk.
Make credit decisions fair and explainable, and govern AI in fraud and AML.
Write an organisational AI policy, run risk-based AI procurement and bring shadow AI under control.
Monitor and evaluate AI systems in use and provide internal compliance assurance.

How it works

Twelve modules, about 45 hours in total, including assignments and the capstone, at your own pace. Each module mixes short readings with interactive practice set in fictional African banks, lenders and fintechs: scenarios, audits, sorting and policy-building. Practice is never marked.

Assessment: a quiz after each module, four applied assignments marked against a published rubric, a timed final exam, and a capstone in which you design AI governance for a fictional African financial group, with peer review and assessor marking.

Certificate

Complete every step to earn the Certificate in AI Governance for Financial Services, a verifiable digital certificate and Open Badge. Your capstone result (pass, merit or distinction) is shown on it.

Certificate and badge

Completed twelve modules covering AI fundamentals, AI across African financial services, fairness and financial inclusion, financial AI regulation in Africa, governance frameworks, data governance, fair and explainable credit, model risk management, financial crime and AML, AI policy, procurement and shadow AI, and monitoring, evaluation and compliance assurance; passed every module quiz, four rubric-marked applied assignments and a timed final exam; and completed an assessor-marked capstone.

Instructor

Pacfaie Courses

AI Governance for Financial Services in Africa