Exploring Digital Financial Inclusion Strategies for Urban and Rural Communities in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter explores digital financial inclusion strategies for rural and urban communities in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Financial inclusion has taken centre stage in academic discourses due to its criticality in enhancing socio-economic development. Digital financial services refer to services that are made available through mobile phones and the internet. The World Bank indicates that in developing countries, more households own mobile phones as compared to those who access water and electricity which highlights high mobile penetration rates in developing countries. Digital financial services are key in enhancing financial inclusion, by including the previously marginalised people into the formal financial system. Statistics reveal that more than 60 percent of the global population now has access to digital financial services hence regulators and policymakers must focus on this burgeoning issue. Huge disparities are evident in the levels of digital financial inclusion between the rural and urban communities for the countries under study, largely because of the marginalisation of rural communities and their depressed spending patterns. Proposed digital financial strategies should, therefore, address this anomaly and include the rural communities into the manifold of digital services to ameliorate the vagaries of poverty rampant in rural communities.