Financial inclusion entails more than just having a bank account. Enabling purchasers’ access to the market, better price, and faster payment, helps to level the playing field for small-scale farmers. In the event of an emergency, the corporation is replacing unwieldy paper vouchers with digitally loaded cards that may be used to purchase food and other supplies. It provides tools to assist people in managing their sources of income and making long-term strategies. It enables small and micro-merchants to grow their enterprises by evaluating their creditworthiness using their purchasing history and that of their suppliers.

Access to such and comparable financial instruments is a critical component of everyone’s financial access. Mobile networks cover about 90% of the population in developing countries, making the usage of digital financial instruments more accessible. However, having access is useless if no one uses the service. In today’s society, about one out of every five cell or bank accounts is inactive.

This conundrum is the subject of a white paper released published by Mastercard, ” The Next Frontier in Financial Inclusion: Moving Beyond Access to Usage.”

The paper is the first in a series from MasterCard’s Global Prepaid team that addresses problems critical to the development of strong, practical, and economically successful financial inclusion solutions. For Mastercard, this involves developing products that are useful to clients and are utilized on a daily basis. Making it simpler for people to connect to networks that help them save money, build their companies, and be financially secure shows that corporate and government partners are doing good not only for their consumers but also for local economies.

To achieve these objectives, well-designed goods must put the user and their needs first. We also need to build an infrastructure that helps consumers on their path to financial wellness.

The studies in the series are based on the lessons we have learned of programs that linked more than 330 million economically marginalized consumers to the official financial system. According to our analysis, there are three main elements that are required to get those who have been added to use:

• Design that is human-centered, focusing on the needs of customers and cultural aspects. People living in metropolitan locations, for example, are more engaged in the business world, are more able to obtain financial services, and are more comfortable with their usage, according to our market research performed in the 16 markets we focus on across five regions. Rural dwellers, on the other hand, rely more on cash and are therefore more vulnerable. Two-thirds of them, for example, were worried about losing control of their money or savings accounts if they couldn’t physically control them. These insights can help product designers tailor tools to their consumers’ various demands.
• Learn about financial concepts and alter the way you conduct business. People living in metropolitan locations, for example, are more engaged in the business world, are more able to obtain financial services, and are more comfortable with their usage, according to our market research performed in the 16 markets we focus on across five regions. Rural dwellers, on the other hand, rely more on cash and are therefore more vulnerable. Two-thirds of them, for example, were worried about losing control of their money or savings accounts if they couldn’t physically control them. These insights can help product designers tailor tools to their consumers’ various demands.
• Create strong ecosystems to allow for the scale. Innovative technology deployment strategies, as well as new payment channels and flows, are critical to growing. In Pakistan, for example, a cooperation between the state bank, two of the country’s most major telecoms providers, and Mastercard has aided the growth of digital payments. The partners saw the benefits of allowing customers to pay at any merchant, regardless of the supplier, as part of their partnership. Interoperability in payment was critical to increasing overall acceptability. They were able to reach a larger number of individuals in a shorter amount of time by working together to fulfill merchant and customer needs.

Partnerships, such as the ones in Pakistan, are critical to long-term success. We will provide additional insights regarding the establishment of strong payment systems that are resilient and reliable relationships in future white papers.