More than half of adults still ‘have no access to banking’

Mobile money transfer services such as M-Pesa are helping to rapidly expand and scale up access to financial services [Photo: COLLINS ODUOR/STANDARD]

More than half of adults in the world’s poorest areas still have no access to the financial system, a new World Bank report shows. The World Bank’s Global Findex report said this is despite a global increase of 11 per cent in the last three years of adults owning bank accounts.

The report said between 2011 and 2014, 700 million people became account holders at banks, other financial institutions, or mobile money service providers, and the number of “unbanked” individuals dropped 20 per cent to two billion adults