Much has been said about Africa’s mobile money revolution—and for good reason. According to the GSMA’s 2024 State of the Industry Report, the region accounts for over 70% of global mobile money transaction volume, with more than $832 billion processed in Sub-Saharan Africa alone last year.
But for all the progress, a deeper challenge remains:
Mobile money is not financial inclusion.
Ownership of a wallet is not the same as access to real financial tools. Many people can send and receive money, but cannot access affordable credit, store value securely, or build financial resilience. For women, rural populations, and informal workers in particular, the gap is still wide.
True inclusion depends on more than just digital wallets. It requires infrastructure—both digital and institutional—that reaches the underserved and enables responsible growth at scale.
The Fault Lines in Current Systems
Three issues continue to prevent mobile financial systems from serving the last mile:
1. Usage is shallow.
Many wallet holders use them for one-off transactions, not as primary financial tools. A 2023 report from the IMF notes that only 23% of mobile money users in Sub-Saharan Africa actively use their accounts for more than two types of services. Savings, credit, and insurance remain out of reach for most.
2. Credit markets remain informal and opaque.
Digital credit offerings have grown, but often with minimal oversight. Default rates are high. Credit scoring models lack transparency. And many users are either over-indebted or excluded altogether. Regulation has not kept pace with innovation.
3. Infrastructure is fragmented.
Fintechs, telcos, and banks operate in silos. Identity verification, payment switching, and transaction data are locked in separate systems. This makes onboarding expensive, Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance inconsistent, and credit modeling unreliable.
Without shared rails—digital ID, credit registries, interoperable wallets—financial services cannot scale sustainably. The result is exclusion at the very edge where inclusion matters most.
What Needs to Change
If Africa is to truly “bank the last mile,” a shift in how financial infrastructure is built and governed is necessary. This includes:
Shared Infrastructure First
Countries must prioritize foundational systems—interoperable digital IDs, payment switches, credit bureaus, and mobile KYC protocols—so that financial service providers can onboard, serve, and monitor clients efficiently. These platforms should be designed for both public and private actors to use, reducing duplication and costs across the board.
Pro-Innovation Regulation
Central banks and financial authorities face a delicate balancing act: enabling growth while protecting users. New regulatory approaches—such as regulatory sandboxes, tiered KYC, and data-sharing frameworks—can support innovation without compromising safety. But these tools must move from pilot to policy.
Data Portability and Consent-Based Ecosystems
Many last-mile users leave digital footprints across mobile usage, informal transactions, and social behavior. Turning these into credit signals, with user consent and appropriate safeguards, can unlock access to responsible lending. But this requires clear data governance standards—and platforms that prioritize the interests of users, not just institutions.
Local Partnerships at the Core
Too many inclusion initiatives are built without meaningful engagement from the communities they aim to serve. Distribution networks, trust channels, and service design must be anchored in local realities—whether through agents, cooperatives, or microenterprises. Top-down models rarely travel far.
Governments and Donors Must Rethink Their Role
Public institutions and development finance partners can accelerate last-mile banking—not by building products, but by enabling platforms:
- Fund shared infrastructure, not isolated pilots
- Support the digitization of informal economies, not just formal players
- Invest in institutional capacity to regulate digital finance in real-time, not after the fact
The opportunity is clear. According to the World Bank’s Global Findex, nearly 45% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa remain unbanked. But traditional banks alone won’t solve this. Nor will fintechs—unless the systems around them evolve.
Louer Group’s Approach
At Louer Group, we work with governments, DFIs, regulators, and ecosystem leaders to address the structural barriers holding financial systems back.
Our work focuses on:
- Designing and implementing digital public infrastructure that supports inclusion
- Advising central banks and financial regulators on frameworks that enable safe innovation
- Helping development partners transition from one-off grants to scalable, interoperable solutions
- Connecting fintechs, telcos, and policymakers through program design that reflects real-world incentives
We don’t advocate for quick wins. We help build the foundational rails that inclusion can ride on—for the long term.
Inclusion Can’t Be Outsourced
Banking the last mile isn’t about deploying another mobile app. It’s about building the systems that make fair, accessible, and trusted financial services possible at the edge of the economy. That means rethinking how we build, who we build with, and who the systems are truly built for.
Louer Group partners with those ready to take that leap—from innovation to infrastructure, and from pilots to platforms that last.
