An underlying premise of this study was that the formal financial sector has an important role to play in the process of assisting the development of South Africa’s disadvantaged communities, especially those living in poverty. The study explored the construct of financial inclusion and sought to understand what measures are being taken by South African financial services institutions to optimise financial inclusion. Through secondary data analysis, the study investigated instances of the construct in other geographies and sought to compare and contrast what was being done in those geographies, with what is being done in South Africa. The study concluded that while the lower segments of the market are relatively unchartered territory for South African financial services organisations, the strategies that are being employed to service these markets seem to be a combination of strategies that are being employed in other geographies around the world. Based on evidence from the analysis of the various geographies and face-to-face interviews with industry practitioners from some of the larger financial services organisations in South Africa, the study proposed some additions to the way in which product development processes are carried out within financial services.<p / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Financial exclusion remains a challenge in Malawi despite government efforts to increase financial inclusion through the development of policies and the implementation of financial inclusion strategies. Limited information exists on the contribution of these policies and strategies to the promotion financial inclusion. The overall purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which policies and strategies in Malawi promote financial inclusion. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the relevant policies and strategies, determine their objectives, design, strengths and weaknesses, and their contribution to promoting financial inclusion. The study used the Global Microscope 2019 tool on enabling environments for financial inclusion to assess the following policies and strategies: the microfinance policy, the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion – NSFI I (2010-2015), the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion – NSFI II (2016-2020), the National Agriculture Policy – NAP (2016), the National Agriculture Investment Plan – NAIP (2018-2023), the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy – MGDS III (2017-2022), and the National Multi-sector Nutritional Policy (2018-2022). Further, various conceptual frameworks were reviewed, which led to the development of a conceptual framework on the contribution of policies and strategies to financial inclusion. It was determined that the extent to which policies and strategies promote financial inclusion in Malawi varies from high to low. The study concluded that policies and strategies that promote financial inclusion had action plans that focused closely on infrastructure development and government coordination and support. Policies and strategies that lacked stability and integrity in implementation, including those that failed to define financial inclusion clearly and describe the target groups, did not promote financial inclusion. The study recommended that financial inclusion should be mainstreamed in other development policies and strategies to ensure holistic support to the same cause. Key Words: Financial Inclusion, National Financial Inclusion Strategy, policies and strategies, Malawi. / Dissertation (MAgric (Rural Development))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Mastercard Foundation Scholarship Programme / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MAgric (Rural Development) / Unrestricted

Public policy has important implications for the lives of the poor. This dissertation analyzes how three types of policy impact the poor in developing countries. First, tax and transfer systems can benefit many poor while still making some poor worse off, and this phenomenon is overlooked by measures currently used to assess transfers in tandem with the taxes used to pay for them. I show that comparisons of poverty before and after taxes and transfers, as well as measures of horizontal equity and progressivity---which are often used to analyze anti-poverty policies in tandem with the taxes used to pay for them---can fail to capture an important aspect: that a substantial proportion of the poor are made poorer (or non-poor made poor) by the tax and transfer system. I call this fiscal impoverishment, and axiomatically derive a measure of its extent. Second, the government's choice of how to measure poverty---specifically, the choice between a unidimensional (usually income or consumption-based) measure and a multidimensional measure that incorporates other dimensions such as health and education---can affect the strategic interactions between government ministers, leading to changes in the amount of resources spent to alleviate poverty. In a game-theoretic framework, I show that despite introducing free riding, a multidimensional measure usually leads to an increase in total antipoverty spending; antipoverty expenditures can be further increased by publishing partial dimensional indices alongside the scalar multidimensional one. Third, efforts to digitize government transfer programs through savings accounts and debit cards can enable the poor to build trust in financial institutions and save more. I study a natural experiment in which debit cards were rolled out to beneficiaries of a Mexican conditional cash transfer program, who were already receiving their transfers in savings accounts through a government bank. Using a rich combination of administrative and survey data, I find beneficiaries initially used their cards to check their balances and build trust in the bank, after which they used the account to save. Formal and overall savings increased, and this effect was higher for women with low baseline bargaining power who may have the most difficulty saving at home. / Sean Higgins

The study examines the subject of financial inclusion and women’s empowerment in South Africa. Apart from the technicalities and minutiae affecting financial inclusion for women, the study will analyse the existing government measures on financial inclusion to determine if these contribute to the socio-economic empowerment of female entrepreneurs in South Africa. The study uses a feminist political economy perspective to understand the historical exclusion of the female gender in South Africa and the gender gaps regarding financial inclusion as a result. The effects of colonialism in South Africa on gender inequality, structural, psychological and cultural degradation and how these have affected women’s participation in social and economic relations in the finance sector in the country are part of the effort to understand financial inclusion and women’s empowerment. Resentment, exclusion and coercion are the inevitable consequences of poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. Although concerted efforts have been made by the state to address this problem, including ensuring that women and girls have access to finance and gender equality within their constitutional rights (as contained in the national policy), the problem has remained unabated. Using the qualitative method approach, based on attitudinal research of an exploratory nature, the study hoped to gain insight, from the available literature as well as respondents’ responses, into financial inclusion/exclusion and how this impacts women’s empowerment in South Africa. Keywords: Financial Inclusion, Inclusive Development, Political Economy, Women’s Empowerment, South Africa. / Thesis (PhD (Political Science))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / UP Doctoral Research Bursary. / Political Sciences / PhD (Political Science) / Unrestricted

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Fintech has been promoted as a tool for financial inclusion and in turn income inequality reduction. While previous research in large has shown a negative relationship between Fintech adaptation and income inequality there are discrepancies regarding whether this is the case across countries. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to answer if financial inclusion through an increase in active Fintech users reduce income inequality and if the relationship differs across regions and income groups. The study is based on cross sectional data for 86 countries, primarily sourced from the World Bank’s Global Findex and World Development Indicators databases. The relationship between Fintech and income inequality is initially estimated through an OLS multiple variable regression, but due to endogeneity issues a 2SLS instrument variable regression is employed. The results find a statistically significant negative relationship between Fintech and income inequality of -0,32 for the entire sample. A similar negative relationship is however only present among higher income countries and in Western Europe and North America, suggesting that Fintech may not be a panacea for income inequality reduction.

Kenya and South Africa both face unique challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between those who have access to formal financial institutions and those who do not. The development of mobile banking and its broad accessibility and affordability, in both countries, has led to it being heralded as a great tool for increasing access to banking institutions. Kenya and South Africa have followed different regulatory paths. Kenya has taken an open regulatory approach, whilst South Africa has taken a closed regulatory approach. This thesis identifies the key regulatory differences between South Africa and Kenya by conducting secondary data analysis focusing on the periods when both countries liberalized their banking sectors and telecommunications sectors. This thesis also illustrates how these two paths have influenced the development of financial inclusion in both countries and explores whether any of these paths may be more advantageous for advancing mobile banking services.

Magister Commercii - MCom / South Africa is ranked, by any measure, among the most unequal countries in the world. Despite having a relatively well-developed financial system, historic patterns of economic concentration continue to feed into the pattern of unequal and combined development (Kabakova & Plaksenkov, 2018). With record low saving rates and poor long-term financial planning, Financial Health (FH) has become an important issue for individuals and households. Individuals throughout the world endeavour to better their financial lives. They allocate funds to nondiscretionary expenses, save, take out loans and plan, etc., working towards growing their assets and growing their resources, in their quest for good FH. This study examined the relationship between FI and FH in South Africa, as well as whether and how individuals benefit from their relationship to the financial system. The study used a nationally representative demand-side survey, FinScope South Africa, for the periods 2011 and 2016. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to derive a Financial Inclusion Index (FII) and a Financial Health Index (FHI) to measure the range of FI and FH in South Africa. Probit regressions were run to measure the likelihood of being financially included and having good FH. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) were run to identify the sort of the relationship between the dependant and independent variables. Lastly, bivariate regressions were run to test the relationship between FI and FH.

Financial inclusion remains a critical issue for developing economies such as Nigeria, where the focus of the government is to bring all economic units into the pool of the country's financial system. The rate of financial inclusion is an economic yardstick that cannot be discounted and one which remains a clear focal point of different inter-governmental efforts and policy. On one hand, there is the realisation that a low rate of financial inclusion means that a huge percentage of the population rarely has access to the kind of financial services that can take them out of poverty. As a contemporary discourse, this research seeks to assess the impact of financial inclusion on the development of the economy; arguing on the premise that proxy indicators in existing research have failed to provide a clear picture on the impact of financial inclusion on the economy, thereby failing to provide stakeholders with a strong motivation to pursue financial inclusiveness in the country. The focus of the study is to assess the effect of financial inclusion on income inequality and economic growth. To achieve this objective the study leverages on data spanning a period of 34 years (1981 to 2016), based on data generated from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin and the World Bank Development Indicators. Using the Error Correction Mechanism (ECM),Unit Root Analysis and the Co-Integration analytical framework, the findings indicated that the short and longrun relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth in Nigeria show that the current values of the variables were not significant. Regarding the relationship between financial inclusion and income inequality in Nigeria, the short-run result revealed that only the past values of loans to rural areas and number of commercial bank branches appears to be significant, while at the long-run, the lagged value of gross domestic product per capital, commercial bank deposits and loans to rural areas were found to be statistically significant. The study further notes that financial inclusiveness was a precursor for economic growth in Nigeria. It is on this basis that the study recommends among others that; there is the need to increase loans to the rural areas by at least 50% this can be done through moral suasion to boost the economic activities in the rural areas, improve their aggregate demand, and ultimately their standard of living. There is also the need to engage more workforce in the rural areas to close the inequality gap prevalent in the country.

Yes / This chapter examines the conceptual and measurement issues involving financial inclusion. Rest of the chapter is organised as follows. Section 2 defines the concept of financial inclusion. Section 3 briefly discusses the barriers to financial inclusion. The next section outlines measurement issues and data sources involving financial inclusion. Finally, the last section of the study concludes.