Zambia scores 67% in new Brookings Analysis of Financial Inclusion Efforts

Today, the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution will release its 2016 Financial and Digital Inclusion Project (FDIP) Report: Advancing Equitable Financial Ecosystems. FDIP evaluates commitment to and progress toward financial inclusion across a set of 26 geographically, politically, and economically diverse countries, including Zambia.

As authors John D. Villasenor, Darrell M. West, and Robin J. Lewis write, “Evaluating progress toward adoption of affordable formal financial services matters because financial inclusion is a key ingredient in promoting household welfare and broader economic development.” And with approximately two billion adults around the world lacking access to formal financial services, there is room for a great deal of improvement globally.

This year’s report, the second in an annual series, measures countries on four “dimensions” of financial inclusion: country commitment, mobile capacity, regulatory environment, and the adoption of traditional and digital financial services. Zambia received 67% of the total possible points across all four dimensions, meaning it ranked 18th out of 26 countries on overall score. Other interesting findings pertaining to the country include:

• The 2015 FinScope survey in Zambia found that about 59% of adults were financially included and about 38% of adults were formally included as of 2015 (up from about 23% in 2009).
• Inclusion among women increased more significantly between the 2009 and 2015 FinScope surveys than inclusion among men (around 24 percentage points).
• As of November 2015, the Bank of Zambia, Pensions and Insurance Authority, and Securities and Exchange Commission were coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank on the development of a new financial inclusion strategy.
• Limited awareness of digital financial services has been cited as a constraining factor with respect to further expanding digital financial service usage.