Fintechs as an Enabler of Financial Inclusion: An Empirical Analysis in the Landscape of African Economies

Rachida El Yamani () and Fadwa Betane ()
Additional contact information
Rachida El Yamani: Hassan II University
Fadwa Betane: Mohammed V University of Rabat

A chapter in Trends and Challenges of Electronic Finance, 2025, pp 305-329 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Does the implementation of fintechs affect financial inclusion in African countries? The empirical research in this area seems to be very young, and the results are often contradictory and unclear. This research aims to examine the correlation between fintechs and financial inclusion in the landscape of African countries. A dynamic panel data model was used to analyze the link between fintechs and financial inclusion for the period from 2004 to 2022. In general, fintechs are increasing financial inclusion in African countries, but only in the long term. This article would contribute to the body of literature by examining the nexus between fintechs and financial inclusion, therefore, the results of this paper support financial academics, decision-makers, and policymakers in their efforts to expand the use of fintechs in the financial sector and advance financial inclusion in African economies. This study illustrates how fintechs affect the progress of financial inclusion in nine African nations. According to the authors’ knowledge, most studies in this field have looked at the causal relationship between fintechs and financial inclusion with regard to income inequality or even gender. Therefore, the findings of these studies do not provide an abundant understanding of the influence of fintechs on short- and long-term financial inclusion because they either apply to isolated countries or are based on static panel models. This study fills in these gaps by using the ARDL panel, a dynamic model that allows for the short- and long-term estimation of coefficients for a group of countries, with results that may be interpreted as a general conclusion that applies to other countries.

Keywords: Financial inclusion; Fintechs; Africa; Panel data; ARDL (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-96-3304-3_18

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819633043

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-96-3304-3_18

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().