Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Financial Inclusion in Sub-saharan Africa

Désiré Avom () and Yvan Audrey Kamdem
Additional contact information
Désiré Avom: University of Yaoundé II
Yvan Audrey Kamdem: University of Yaoundé II

A chapter in Emerging Markets and Industrialized Countries in the New Wave of Globalization, 2025, pp 243-265 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Empirical evidence on the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is limited, with most studies focusing on a single indicator. This paper fills that gap by using a composite financial inclusion index and a difference-in-differences design to assess the effects of lockdowns on 87,080 adults across 29 SSA countries, drawing from the World Bank's Global Findex surveys (2014, 2017, and 2021). We find that in countries with lockdowns, the financial inclusion index increased by nearly one percentage point, with a more significant rise in Southern and Eastern Africa than in Central and Western Africa. We also show that the impact of lockdowns varies by dimension and indicator of financial inclusion, underscoring the importance of using a composite index. Additionally, partial lockdowns were found to have a stronger positive impact on financial inclusion compared to full lockdowns. These results are robust across alternative estimation techniques and control variables. Thus, the COVID-19 lockdowns did not reverse the progress made in promoting financial inclusion in SSA.

Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown; financial inclusion; Sub-Saharan Africa; DiD (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:prbchp:978-3-032-04602-4_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783032046024

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-04602-4_11

Access Statistics for this chapter

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