Financial Inclusion and Sustainability: Challenges, Curative Measures and Prospects
摘要
Financial Inclusion is recognized as a great mechanism to accomplish economic development. It refers to the accessibility of formal financial support from banks and financial institutions to the adult members. It may include having savings account in a bank, availing loan facility from a bank or financial institutions or having an insurance to safeguard against risk. According to Global Findex database (2021), 1.7 billion adults across the globe are financially excluded and out of this 56% of them are from Asia. The percentage of women having a bank account in developing economies is only 9%. The financial exclusion has led to poverty, income inequality which has cascading effect on the economic development of a nation. One of the goals of United Nations under SDGs (Sustainability Development Goals) is to ensure inclusive growth so that no one is left behind. The existing literature underscores the importance of financial inclusion. Nevertheless there exists the knowledge gap relating to digital financial solutions, financial literacy as a tool to enhance financial inclusion, updating curriculum and sustainability. This piece of research aims to contribute towards the accomplishment of SDGs more specifically Sustainable Development Goals number 1, 4, 5 and 9 by addressing the crucial knowledge lacuna by uncovering the obstacles and to offer recommendations to policy makers to take the financial inclusion to the next level so that more and more people are financially included.