More than 1.7 billion people in the world are still unable to participate in the formal financial system. The majority are women. This makes it extremely difficult for poor people to save for the future, provide for their family’s health and children’s education, or invest in a business. The harsh reality is that the only way to make or receive payments for many poor people across the world is by using paper money in the informal sector – which is a barrier to the use of formal financial services. Cash-based transactions are also typically unsafe, expensive, inconvenient, inefficient, and lack transparency for governments, companies, and citizens alike.

When digital payments—whether on mobile phones, cards, or online —become available to everyone, everyone in the economy can benefit from the outcomes! These include:

• Cost savings through increased efficiency and speed, governments, companies, and international organizations and individuals waste time and resources making and receiving inefficient cash payments. Digital payments can be made quickly and efficiently, which decreases overall costs.
• Transparency and security by increasing accountability and tracking, reducing corruption and theft as a result, transparency and accountability are harder to achieve with cash payments because they are anonymous and difficult to trace. Digital payments increase accountability and tracking, lessening the risk of corruption and theft.
• Financial inclusion by advancing access to a range of financial services, including savings accounts and insurance products, digital payments have emerged as an important tool for advancing financial inclusion because it lowers the cost of providing financial services to poor people and increases the safety and convenience of using savings, payments, and insurance products.
• Women’s economic participation by giving women more control over their financial lives and improving economic opportunities, Improving access to digital payments can empower women by giving them more control over family finances, increasing personal security, and improving their economic opportunities. Globally, 80 million unbanked women receive government wages or transfers in cash; 210 million unbanked women receive cash payments for the sale of agricultural goods; 585 million women pay for utilities in cash; and 225 million women pay school fees in cash.
• Inclusive growth through building the institutions that form the bedrock of an economy and the cumulative effect of cost savings, increased transparency, financial inclusion, and greater women’s economic participation, integrating digital payments into the economies of emerging and developing nations addresses the critical issue of domestic resource mobilization. Digitizing payments also drives inclusive economic growth and individual financial empowerment.