2015 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Report

Do country commitments make a difference in
progress toward financial inclusion?

A new report on financial inclusion has been released by the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. The report includes an analysis of the state of financial and digital inclusion in individual countries as well as key take-aways from a study on the progress made through financial access programs. The IMTFI-funded project Mobile Money Afghanistan is cited in the report, whilst a blog post written by IMTFI researchers Yaw Owusu-Agyeman and Abena Offe also plays its part.

Some of the take-aways from the report:

• Country commitment is fundamental.
• The movement toward digital financial services will accelerate financial inclusion.
• Geography generally matters less than policy, legal, and regulatory changes, although some regional trends in terms of financial services provision are evident.
• Central banks, ministries of finance, ministries of communications, banks, nonbank financial providers, and mobile network operators play major roles in achieving greater financial inclusion.
• Full financial inclusion cannot be achieved without addressing the financial inclusion gender gap.

Find out where your country ranks in the first scorecard of what will be a series of annual reports.