Financial Inclusion In Africa

I. INTRODUCTION

Africa currently holds the world’s second place in terms of growth with a growth’s rate in the increase of 5% compared to the last twenty years (Triki and Faye, 2013). However, according to the World Bank, although the population living under the threshold of ' $ 1.9 per day’s rate has decreased from 57% to 43% between 1990 and 2012, the number of poor people has increased by nearly 100 million, ranging from 288 to 389 million during the same period (Beegle et al., 2016).

Financial Inclusion, defined as the fact of making accessible at lower cost financial services to the more deprived segments of the population, is regarded today as essential to poverty alleviation and achievement of inclusive economic growth.

Various studies

Indeed, the few existing studies on the subject focus on the rest of the world including here and there few emerging economies of Africa not representative of the overall situation of the continent.

The objective of this study is, using the recently updated data, to enrich the literature on financial inclusion by putting an emphasis on the special situation of Africa. In doing this, we will look at what has already been done in this area and will try to situate clearly Africa compared to the rest of the world in terms of financial inclusion. We will focus on the real impact of financial inclusion in alleviating poverty in Africa and finally will try to determine the channels and mechanisms through which this inclusion, if significant, can improve the economic situation of the most disadvantaged.

Apart from this introduction, our work shall include a section devoted to the review of the existing literature on the subject, a section discussing the methodology that we propose to follow in our study and finally a section dedicated to excepted results of our work and our special

LITERATURE REVIEW

Reduction of social inequalities and increase of inclusion lead to a sustained process of economic growth. Financial inclusion, therefore, become a tool for inclusive growth, poverty reduction and social inclusion of the poorest segments of the society.

The fact that the policy-makers and regulators are increasingly interested in the economic inclusion of emerging countries, financial inclusion became a subject very much in vogue.

Amidžić et al. (2014) stated that financial inclusion is an economic state where access to a wide range of financial services is not denied to individuals and firms.

Theoretical postulates assume that a well developed financial system has a positive impact on economic growth on the long term, Levine (2005) and Demirguc-Kunt and Levine (2008). Other authors have also established a solid relationship of positive direction between the financial development, the level of income and poverty alleviation; Mohan (2006), Beck et al. (2007), Karmakar (2008), Ianchovichina and Lundstrom (2009)