Africa has for a long time looked to galvanise its strengths and capabilities to build a stronger economy.
It is well known the resources that the continent possesses, including its youthful population.
Economic independence and financial inclusion still remain challenges for the continent, preventing a uniform spread of wealth across different economic levels.
Currently, only individuals in stronger economic positions are able to take advantage of the financial solutions tasked with growing financial inclusion.
Africa has for a long time looked to galvanise its strengths and capabilities to build a stronger economy. It is well known the resources that the continent possesses, including its youthful population.
Economic independence and financial inclusion still remain challenges for the continent, preventing a uniform spread of wealth across different economic levels.
Currently, only individuals in stronger economic positions are able to take advantage of the financial solutions tasked with growing financial inclusion. In 2021, according to data from the African Development Bank (AfDB), there are 322 million unbanked individuals on the continent.
One of the revolutionary ideas of this millennium, mobile money, was born on the African continent. Thus far, this is one of the few solutions that has had success in providing all demographics access to financial services.
The impact of mobile money can be seen in the financial inclusion statistics of the continent. In contrast to the high number of unbanked individuals, Africa accounts for 64 percent of all mobile money transactions globally ($490 billion) as per the GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2021.
Further, mobile money agents greatly outnumber ATMs and bank branches. For every 100,000 people, there are 585 mobile money agents, nine ATMs and five bank branches.
This shows that despite the growth of digital payments on the continent, the greater majority of individuals are reliant on mobile money and cash.Cash-based and mobile money transactions are the most accessible to the majority of the workforce driven by the fact that over 80 percent of workers in sub-Saharan Africa are in the informal sector.But with the growth of technology and a population that is able to easily adapt to digital platforms, growing a cashless economy can have a major impact on the continent’s growth.The first step Africa should take is to harmonise policies across the continent that boost the growth of a cashless economy since a continental impact will only be felt when successful policies are replicated across different countries and […]
