Professor Olayinka David-West examines financial inclusion barriers affecting 1.4 billion unbanked adults globally, arguing that digital solutions and ecosystem collaboration are essential to mainstream financial access across all socioeconomic levels.
This article by Professor Olayinka David-West explores the critical challenge of financial inclusion, highlighting that 1.4 billion adults lack access to basic financial services like payment systems and savings mechanisms. The piece examines progress since 2011, barriers to account ownership including regulatory and environmental constraints, and the limitations of digital-only solutions in addressing exclusion. While mobile money reduced exclusion by 700 million adults between 2011-2014, digital divides persist. The author argues that solving financial inclusion requires ecosystem-wide collaboration among financial service providers, consumers, governments, regulators, academia, and standard-setting organizations to build sustainable, inclusive financial systems.
