Highlights:
- International funders committed US$74 billion for financial inclusion in 2022. This represents an 8 percent increase since 2021, with both private and public funders showing steady growth following two years of fluctuations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Development finance institutions showed the strongest growth and continue to dominate the public funding landscape.
- While Sub-Saharan Africa continues to receive more funding than any other region, funding to Latin America and the Caribbean has grown substantially, by 49 percent over 2021.
- Funders are increasingly interested in supporting climate objectives through their financial inclusion programming, with 14 percent of financial inclusion projects tagged to a green/climate thematic objective.
- For the first time, more than a third of projects have been tagged to women’s financial inclusion, which is especially important given women are particularly vulnerable to climate change.
Executive Summary
International funders committed an estimated US$74 billion for financial inclusion in 2022 (+8 percent over 2021 figures), with steady growth from both private and public funders after two years of fluctuations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, development finance institutions (DFIs) showed the strongest growth (+14 percent over 2021) and continue to dominate the public funding landscape. As DFIs provide most of their funding as debt, they helped to drive the overall debt share of financial inclusion funding to an all-time high. For the first time, in 2022, half of all public funding for financial inclusion took the form of debt to financial services providers (FSPs). This indicates that public funders—especially DFIs—are finding more investable opportunities, although public funders need to monitor the additionality of their funding and ensure they are not crowding out potential commercial financing.
While Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continues to receive more funding than any other region, in 2022, funding to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) grew substantially (+49 percent over 2021) to nearly match SSA in share of total commitments. Growth was again driven by DFIs. Many of the largest projects in the region made specific reference to supporting continued economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic.
Funders are showing growing interest in how they can support climate objectives within their financial inclusion programming. Fourteen percent of financial inclusion projects were tagged to a green/climate thematic objective in 2022, more than twice the number and proportion of financial inclusion projects tagged as recently as 2020. Additionally, for the first time, more than a third of projects were tagged to women’s financial inclusion (WFI). Funders’ continued focus on women is all the more important in the context of the climate crisis, given that women are particularly vulnerable.
Given the dramatic changes in the sector and the funding landscape in recent years, there is high interest from many stakeholders in mapping financial inclusion funding flows in new ways. Further investigations by CGAP and others are underway to understand what transparency for impact could look like in the years ahead.