How can we leverage digital technology for financial inclusion?

Despite transformative innovations in digital technologies, the digital divide is still substantial. As this year’s World Development Report on “Digital Dividends” notes, digital finance is likely to play a key role in answering the question of how digital technologies can contribute to the World Bank Group’s twin goals of eradicating extreme poverty and increasing shared prosperity. Digital connectivity is key, but it is only a starting point for successful digital development. It is as important to strengthen other factors that interact with technology in order to make digital technologies work for the poor. The World Development Report calls these other factors the ‘analog complements’ to digital technologies, which fall into three categories: regulation, skills, and institutions.