Background
Economic growth is a top priority for governments around the world, and this holds true for Africa as well. This has led to heavy investments in the financial sector. The 1920s saw the establishment of the earliest central banks on the continent in a bid to achieve this goal. The Central Bank of the Gambia cites its mission as “To Achieve and Maintain Price and Exchange Stability Underpinned by a Sound and Vibrant Financial System to Encourage and Promote Sustainable Economic Development”  Other countries on the continent have similar missions that incorporate economic or financial development as central objectives.

However, as reported in the EPRA International Journal of Economic and Business Review, financial development is possible only when it is inclusive.  Financial inclusion is therefore necessary to ensure that economic growth performance is sustained.

What, then, is financial inclusion? 

Financial inclusion refers to all initiatives that make formal financial services available, accessible, and affordable to all segments of the population. As with all things “inclusion”, it requires special attention to specific portions of the population that have been historically excluded from the formal financial sector, either because of their income level and volatility, gender, location, type of activity, level of financial literacy, or more.

The Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) divides the different concepts related to financial inclusion into three categories: access (making financial services available and affordable to users), usage (ensuring customers use financial services frequently and regularly), and quality (ensuring financial services are tailored to clients’ needs). Within these three categories, digital inclusion and digital rights demonstrate a deep interconnectedness to financial inclusion.

Digital Inclusion as a Prerequisite for Financial Inclusion
Digital inclusion refers to the activities necessary to ensure that all individuals and communities, including the most disadvantaged, have access to and use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Without such access, people—especially in underserved communities—are excluded from digital financial services like mobile banking, digital wallets, and fintech platforms. Many financial services today are digital-first, meaning those without internet access or the necessary skills are left out of the formal financial system.

In Africa, where formal banking penetration remains low, mobile money has emerged as a dominant force in financial inclusion. Services such as M-Pesa in Kenya, MTN MoMo in West Africa, and Airtel Money in East Africa have enabled millions to access financial services without a traditional bank account. However, the digital divide—caused by factors such as limited internet access, high data costs, and low smartphone penetration—continues to prevent full financial inclusion.

Ensuring that all individuals can fully and frequently use digital financial services requires the elimination of key barriers at the intersection of digital and financial inclusion. Some of these barriers include the following:

• Gender Gaps: Women are more likely to use 
• Women’s World Banking Group reports that nearly one billion women around the world are unserved or underserved by the formal financial sector and unable to reach their full economic potential. This is often due to affordability issues and cultural norms.

• Cybersecurity Threats: The more people engage in digital finance, the more vulnerable they become to cyber fraud, necessitating strong digital security protections. A lack of these protections often deters potential users from adopting digital financial services.

Quality

To ensure financial products are tailored to consumer needs, inclusive product design is essential. Digital inclusion ensures that fintech solutions are developed with diverse users in mind, incorporating features such as:

• Local language support
• Accessibility features for persons with disabilities
• USSD-based services for those without smartphones

These considerations ensure that financial services remain inclusive and accessible to all users.

Digital Rights as a Safeguard for Financial Inclusion

While digital inclusion is a key component of digital rights, they are not the same. Digital rights encompass broader protections related to digital access, privacy, security, and online freedoms among others, while digital inclusion also is part of digital rights and focuses on ensuring equitable access to digital tools and skills. In terms of financial inclusion, some specific digital rights serve as foundational safeguards:

• Right to Privacy & Data Protection: Digital financial services require users to share sensitive personal and financial data with private companies. Strong data protection laws are necessary to ensure users’ rights are safeguarded against misuse, breaches, and financial fraud. Although the current trajectory of 37 African countries embracing data protection laws as at 2024.

• Internet Access: While there are various barriers to access, Internet shutdowns is a sweeping and have occurred more frequently in Africa since 2019 in countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda. When governments shut down the internet, digital financial services stop functioning, affecting businesses, workers, and daily transactions—especially in mobile money-dependent economies. 
• Non-Discriminatory Access: Digital rights protect against algorithmic bias and financial exclusion, ensuring that services do not discriminate based on gender, location, or socioeconomic status.
  

Conclusion

Overall, promoting financial inclusion requires policy efforts that ensure internet affordability, digital literacy, consumer protection, and consideration for digital rights and inclusion. This burden cannot be borne by financial institutions alone. The formulation of policy for financial inclusion must include a variety of stakeholders, including rights-promoting organisations, which have traditionally been excluded from financial conversations. Strengthening digital rights frameworks ensures that financial inclusion does not come at the cost of privacy breaches or discrimination.

Digital rights provide the foundation for equitable financial inclusion by ensuring safe, accessible, and unrestricted access to digital financial tools. Conversely, financial inclusion can drive digital inclusion by incentivising digital adoption. The two must be advanced together to create a fair and inclusive digital economy. The bottom line is that without digital rights, financial inclusion remains incomplete.

The writer is a Senior Programmes Officer at Paradigm Initiative.