The state of financial services in Africa has been researched and reported in a fragmented fashion. The special issue represents one of such rare attempts to publish researches on financial services in Africa in a single platform. This was facilitated by selecting best papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Financial Services organized by the College of Economic and Management Sciences of the University of South Africa and held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa from 29 September to 1 October 2015. The Conference explored, among other financial services issues, the pervasive nature of mobile technology in the provision of inclusive financial services in Africa. Hence, research papers in this special issue navigate pertinent issues regarding financial services in Africa –starting from the state of financial literacy, then moving to bank account ownership and usage issues, mobile technological innovations in form of M-Pesa mobile pioneered in Kenya, livestock collateral innovations being tested in some countries, and finally exploring the extent to which foreign exchange markets conform to the law of one price.