Opportunities and Obstacles to Financial Inclusion

This report ranks the opportunities and obstacles in financial inclusion in order of significance.

AUTHORS

Elisabeth Rhyne

Topics

This paper presents and analyzes the results of a survey conducted on industry participants from around the world. The survey respondents included financial service providers, investors and members of support organizations, many of whom are from the microfinance sector.

The report uses the survey findings to create a ranking, in order of significance, of opportunities and obstacles in financial inclusion. From this ranking, a seven-point action agenda was produced which includes financial education, client protection, and institutional capacity building as key components. The paper also provides details for many of the opportunities and obstacles used in the survey. It also looks at some of the differences in responses between different stakeholder groups and in different regions of the world.

Elisabeth Rhyne

Former Managing Director

From its founding in 2008 until retiring in 2019, Elisabeth Rhyne was the Managing Director of CFI. As senior vice president of Accion since 2000, Beth led Accion’s initial entry into Africa and India, directed the organization’s research efforts to develop new financial products, and managed Accion’s publications and educational activities. Recognized as a leading thinker and writer in the field of microfinance, Beth has published numerous articles and four books on the topic, including Mainstreaming Microfinance: How Lending to the Poor Began, Grew and Came of Age in Bolivia (Kumarian Press, 2001). She was also co-editor of The New World of Microenterprise Finance (Kumarian, 1994), which provided the introduction to microfinance for many of the field’s current professionals. Beth was director of the Office of Microenterprise Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 1994 to 1998, where she developed and led USAID’s Microenterprise Initiative. While there, she contributed to the founding of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Boulder Institute of Microfinance. Beth’s experience includes eight years of residence in Africa (Kenya and Mozambique) and independent consulting on microfinance policy and operations for governments, international organizations and microfinance institutions. She holds a master’s and Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history and humanities from Stanford University.