Digital finance and inclusion in the time of COVID-19
By Niclas Benni
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in severe and protracted disruptions to the livelihoods of people all around the world, both in developing and developed countries. The pervasive effects of this pandemic, which have ended up affecting every aspect of our societies, keep unfolding as the crisis progresses, leaving profound marks on people’s livelihoods and countries’ economies that are expected to last for many years after the pandemic has ended. As part of the global response to COVID-19, the digital finance industry has been playing a key role in developing and providing services and innovations that have mitigated, at least partially, the disruptions brought about by the pandemic on multiple aspects of people’s lives. In developing and emerging contexts, especially, there has been a strong surge in interest for the ample potential that fintech (i.e. financial technology) carries in preserving people’s livelihoods and businesses that have been, and continue to be, threatened by the pandemic, thereby enabling and sustaining – within societies – the flow of cash, credit, deposits, investments, salaries, government-topersons (G2P) and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, among others, at national and regional levels.
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