> Posted by Merene Botsio and Sonja E. Kelly, Financial Inclusion 2020 Project Coordinator and Fellow, CFI
The Financial Inclusion 2020 campaign at the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion is building a movement toward full financial inclusion by 2020. Accordingly, this blog series will spotlight financial inclusion efforts around the globe, share insights coming out of the creation of a roadmap to full financial inclusion, and highlight findings from research on the “invisible market.”
People across the world are four times more likely to recognize the Coca-Cola logo than to have saved money in a formal financial institution in the past year. Almost everyone—94 percent of adults in the world—recognizes the Coca-Cola logo, whereas only 23 percent of people have saved at a formal financial institution. When we bring big statistics down to our everyday lives, it often becomes easier to understand their magnitude. Here are some other surprising figures that emerge when we compare the Global Findex numbers on financial services usage to other figures.*
- You are more likely to get 1,000 views when you post a YouTube video than you are to have a home loan. Ten percent of videos on YouTube have at least 1,000 views, and seven percent of people in the world reported having an outstanding loan to purchase a home.
- You are more likely to have a cell phone than a back account. Globally, the likelihood of having a mobile phone is 75 percent, whereas the likelihood of having a bank account is just over 50 percent.
- Globally, you are three times more likely to have internet access than a loan from a formal financial institution (30 percent versus 9 percent).
If you live in a low-income country, you are more likely to live in a slum than to have an account at a formal financial institution. A third of all people in low-income economies live in slums, whereas only 24 percent of adults in low-income economies have an account from a formal financial institution.
- You are almost 25 times more likely to own a radio than to have crop insurance as a farmer in a rural area in Sub-Saharan Africa. Only three percent of farmers report having crop insurance, while over 70 percent of Africa’s rural population owns a radio.
- You are four times more likely to have electricity than to use a bank account to receive wages. Globally electricity is accessed by 80 percent of adults, whereas bank accounts are used to receive wages by 20 percent.
For more information on financial services use throughout the world, visit the Global Findex landing page. For more information on Financial Inclusion 2020, sign up for campaign updates.
*All financial inclusion figures come from the Global Findex, published by the World Bank unless otherwise specified.