Global Challenges of Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion (FI) aims to ensure access of the unbanked and underbanked, especially in low-income countries, to formal financial services such as payment services, saving services, credit services and insurance services. Representatives from 90 low income countries have formed the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) aiming to foster FI for the 2.6 billion unbanked worldwide (Alliance for Financial Inclusion, 2014). However, the world is not only giving special attention to the question of whether people are banked, but also to how they access financial services. This article covers the global challenges of FI and their potential solutions by highlighting the following aspects: identification, financial literacy, rural and gender inequalities as well as cashless payments and transaction accounts. Furthermore, it shows as an example the Nigerian experience of digital saving.