Access to essential financial services is crucial for people to lift themselves out of, or prevent themselves from sliding into, poverty. A basic building block in financial services, account ownership, is identified by the UN Capital Development Fund as the cornerstone for financial access and the foundation for financial inclusion. As described in the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) summary "Financial Inclusion and the SDGs”, financial inclusion can also support economic growth and is also a key enabler for achievement of several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Halfway through this year, the World Bank published the fifth edition of its Global Findex report: The Global Findex Database 2025. First published in 2011, the report has since been published every third year. The Findex data shows how adults access and use financial services.
The report’s main findings
The report tracks development of account ownership: the data shows that 79% of the global population now have a bank account, up 28 percentage points from 2011. The report also highlights the significant impact mobile technology has on access to and usage of financial accounts. Today 86% of adults in the world own a mobile phone. “Access to mobile phones and the internet is associated with reduced poverty, increased consumption, and more employment for individuals in LMCs.” (page 11/49). Due to mobile accounts, global savings have surged and has thereby killed a long-term slow growth. Use of digital merchant payments have also increased from 35% in 2021 to 42% in 2024. This development, which was especially apparent after the pandemic, continues to grow and to function as a primary channel for paying for products and services. The shift from cash to digital payments benefits both buyers and sellers, because it is safer than cash payments. It can also help small -scale merchants access credit, as it gives them real-time records of cash-flow - which again can be used in loan applications, for example). The gender gap in account ownership has also narrowed, with 81% of men and 77% of women now have access to an account. Numbers from Sub-Saharan Africa show that mobile money services have helped achieve gender balance in the demographics of access to financial services.
Although there has been progress, there are still people lacking access to both financial services and digital devices such as mobile phones. The report highlights that the main barrier to mobile ownership is cost and that women are still disproportionately less likely than men to have accounts. The report also mentioned that there is still as many as 1.3 billion people who lack access to a financial account and about 900 million of these have access to a mobile phone, but not an account. In order to increase financial usage, investments in new or improved digital IDs, modernizing payments systems, as well as stronger consumer-protection frameworks, and effort to ensure better security of phones and accounts, is crucial.
Mobile technology
“Mobile platforms in particular have given millions of people, including those who were previously too difficult or too expensive to reach, access to financial services, dramatically boosting not just account ownership but also formal saving and digital payments, while in addition enabling a range of nonfinancial digital activities.” (report, page 23)
Digital payment methods are crucial for the advancement of the SDGs. And the role that digital connectivity has played to increase financial inclusion and economic opportunities is one of the main themes for the most recent updated Findex report.
Access to mobile phones and internet is linked to reduced poverty, increased consumption, and more employment for individuals in low- and middle-income countries (LMCs). The primary barrier to internet use is the cost of smartphones, because of the significant role smartphones play in internet access1. Other barriers include expense of mobile minutes, difficulty reading and/or typing, unreliable coverage, personal safety concerns, no need for a phone, and disapproval from family or community. All barriers play a role, although they have different levels of relevance depending on which region the survey was conducted. (report p. 51/89).
“The world is undergoing fast digital transformation, which some have referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. Numerous economies and private enterprises have embarked on their digital transformation journeys. Ethiopia is set to follow suit. Payments are an essential enabler for this transformation and as technology enables faster and seamless transfer of data (and money) in the modern age, a robust and responsible digital payments ecosystem becomes compulsory.”
His Excellency Abiy Ahmed Ali, Ph.D.
Prime Minister, Republic of Ethiopia
Digital Financial Inclusion helps achieve the SDGs
A report from 2023, “Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial inclusion”, has mapped out how digital financial services helps build resilience and how it is foundational for inclusive growing economies and thereby works as a key enabler for achieving the SDGs. Some of the examples listed in the report examine how digital financial inclusion offers a solution to the SDGs:
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SDG 3: “Digital financial services, such as receiving remittances through mobile money, can improve health-care access and delivery. In Uganda, for instance, women who used mobile money were more likely to seek prenatal care, improving health outcomes for both mother and child.” (SDG progress report, page 11).
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SDG 8: “Shifting from cash to digital wage payments has the potential to improve payroll service efficiency, labour rights compliance, and workers’ financial inclusion.” (page 21)
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SDG 9: “Digital financial services could help low-income people to participate in the transition economy by giving them access to markets, low-cost finance, education and information.” (page 23). “Digital credit can spur entrepreneurial growth, particularly of small e-commerce firms. Technological capabilities have also enabled lenders to reach underserved small and medium sized enterprises (e.g., firms in rural and remote areas, micro-enterprises, and informal ventures), and to cut transaction costs.” (page 23)
These SDGs align with what we see as investment opportunities for the Equal Opportunities theme. The report has mapped all the relevant SDGs and how they align with digital financial inclusion. For more information and examples, please see the full report “Igniting SDG Progress Through Digital Financial inclusion”.
How we invest in financial inclusion
In our solution strategy we have identified investment opportunities using the SDG targets, and several of the targets identified under the Equal Opportunities theme aim to promote financial inclusion. See examples of how companies in the Equal Opportunities portfolio can contribute to financial inclusion:
The Findex report highlights the incremental and crucial part mobile technology plays for financial inclusion:
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“79% of adults have an account. That’s an increase of 28 percentage points since 2011.” (78/116)
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Nu Holdings offers digital savings accounts. The company’s 100% digital model makes it easier for more people to access financial account. Nu Holdings does not offer any physical branches, but with internet or a smartphone, the customer has a digital “bank branch” in their pocket. The company offers its products in Latin America, primarily Brazil, Colombia and Mexico: See more in Nubank’s report "Data Nubank #6 - Financial Inclusion: access that brings transformation".
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“67% of adults use the internet – primarily through the internet.” (page 6/44):
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Telecom towers provide the physical technology that makes it possible for us to access the internet. Helios Towers owns and operates towers in nine markets in Africa and the Middle East, which contain some of the largest unconnected populations in the world.
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“Affordability is by far the most common reason people give for not having a mobile phone.” (page 7/45):
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Vodacom offer cloud-based phones which are described as “smartphone lite”. These phones have standard applications that can be accessed via the cloud and are phones with reduced costs to drive smartphone penetration in South Africa. See more in their news update: "Vodacom launches Cloud smartphone".
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“More adults are using mobile money to save. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 23% of adults saved this way.” (128/166)
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Airtel Africa offers the Airtel Money Platform which can be used to, amongst other, save both with and without a traditional bank account. This is a possibility in several African markets in which they operate.
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“Digital merchant payments are on the rise. 42% of adults paid for goods with a card or phone. That’s up from 35% in 2021, more than 2 billion people.” (129/167)
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MercadoLibre’s marketplace gives SMEs access to a broader client base, and MerdadoPago provides the digital tools to accept online payments. The company operates in Latin America, where MSMEs represent 99.5% of the companies in the region and 60% of employment: Learn more in the UNDP report "Yes, there is hope for MSMEs, in the region and beyond | United Nations Development Programme".
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“82% of adults with accounts made or received a digital payment.” (129/167)
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In order to be able to make digital payments there is often a mix of different actors involved in the technology, there is global card networks like Visa, mobile money operators like Airtel Money (Airtel Africa) or MPesa (Vodacom), payment processors, like Adyen, that connect merchants, banks, card networks, handling the technology behind online and in-person transactions, and many other private and public vendors.