By By Delisa Thwala
Earlier this week Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) Governor Dr. Phil Mnisi announced that through all mobile money banking services, Eswatini has surpassed its 75% financial inclusion target which was 44% set in 2010.
This target was surpassed after a report indicated that 87% of financial inclusion has been a result of all mobile money banking services. These services include digital paying platforms, Ewallets, and Unayo among many others.
Mnisi mentioned that the adoption of digital financial services has been instrumental in expanding financial inclusion in Eswatini. Mobile money services and digital payment platforms have facilitated greater access to banking services, especially in remote areas.
As a result, financial inclusion from the Finscope Survey 2018, indicates the country is now at 87% financial inclusion, this is a commendable achievement given the first Finscope Consumer 2011 indicated, a 44% financial inclusion rate.
“Though we are excited with this level of achievement, we are also mindful because access alone will not assist emaSwati to achieve the desired outcomes, our focus as we move on this journey is to focus on ensuring that emaSwati is using this access for more productive reasons and that they use the financial system to improve their livelihoods and those of their households,” he said.
Worth noting with this trend is that Eswatini recently developed a national financial consumer education strategy that will assist in providing the framework for better targeting of financial education.
Efforts have been made to enhance financial literacy and education among the population to ensure that individuals are empowered to make informed financial decisions.
Financial literacy programs and initiatives have been implemented to improve financial knowledge and capabilities efforts are currently ongoing to integrate financial education into the school curriculum starting from grade 1 to grade 12, while a financial literacy program for the general population is under development, while we continue to actively participate during the global money week.
The Eswatini FinTech ecosystem is still nascent but shows great promise. This allows the country to develop a dynamic and inclusive financial sector that can leverage digital innovation and overcome traditional barriers.
By attracting more investment and collaboration in FinTech, Mnisi, the governor said they can improve the efficiency and accessibility of financial services for citizens and businesses.
“We can also use digital infrastructures such as APIs to enable the interoperability and integration of different platforms and providers. Moreover, we can address the specific challenges and needs of our market, such as financial literacy, access to credit, or social impact,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Deputy Director for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr. Joseph Josephat Mutepfa said even though mobile money is synonymous with FinTech.
He said Eswatini’s 87% financial inclusion has been the result of mobile money services.
Yet the ecosystem lacks product diversity across the FinTech verticals and market enablers.
He said financial inclusion is high, yet the use of digital financial services is low. The Centre for Financial Inclusion (CFI), a policy-advocacy unit within the Ministry of Finance, coordinates monitors supervises the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) implementation.
“The CFI works in collaboration with all stakeholders across key thematic areas like SME financing, women, and youth, digital and data, agricultural finance, and rural finance.
Through mobile money deployments, the GoE has achieved 87% financial inclusion in 2022, surpassing its 75% financial inclusion targets from 44% in 2010. Notwithstanding the progress, the National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) 2.0 seeks to enhance the usage of financial products and services,” said Mutepfa.
48.4% of EmaSwati women and 51.6% use financial products and services.
During the 29th digital financial services, 24th financial inclusion strategy peer learning group and the 19th global standards proportionality working group meeting taking place in the kingdom of eSwatini panelists revealed that 48.4 % of emaSwati women and 51.6% use financial products and services.
This is a pivotal gathering focused on advancing financial inclusion across the globe. It was revealed consumers need affordable solutions.
From Finscope 2018 data, 48.4% of emaSwati women and 51.6% use financial products and services, are educated, mostly live in rural locations, and are active in the agriculture and trade sectors.
From the 87% financial inclusion, emaSwati is said to be satisfied with the financial services provided by commercial banks and mobile money service providers, citing ease of access and safety of funds as key factors.
Notwithstanding the high levels of access to financial services, cash dependence, and utilization are also dominant, revealing that while EmaSwati uses bank accounts and wallets as stores of value, the cash utilization across use cases presents opportunities for digitizing payments and introducing digital financial services (DFS) to meet consumer needs.
The topics for discussion in the various working groups during the meeting underscored the importance the ministries of finance and central banks ascribe to financial inclusion.
It was revealed that sustainable and efficient financial inclusion requires long long-lasting balance between innovation and safeguards that need to be developed to ensure the soundness of the financial sector.
Panelists mentioned that they have no doubt therefore that the discussions, deliberations, and outcomes of the working group meetings will echo far beyond these walls, inspiring continued progress in their shared mission to build a more inclusive and sustainable financial future for generations to come.
Worth noting is that the government of Eswatini very early in the beginning of the millennium recognized the significant role played by the financial services sector in contributing to the overall growth of the country.
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Considering this, one of the main objectives of the government was to improve the reach and depth of financial services delivery in the country, the lack of comprehensive information about the level of financial inclusion, as well as the factors inhibiting the usage of financial services.
Hence the financial inclusion journey in eSwatini can be traced back to 2011 when the first Finscope consumer 2011 survey was carried out; this was further followed up by the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Eswatini in 2013, joining up as principal and associate members respectively.
Numerous studies and diagnostics were carried out leading to the Making Access Possible 2014, finscope consumer survey 2014, and a Making Access Possible financial inclusion roadmap 2015.
