Definition of inclusive finance

Inclusive finance, often confused with the microfinance, are financial services and products destined to aid low income populations. It is a word that is on one hand more global because it regroups all the activities linked to the financial sector, but it is also more precise because it clearly indicates its objective: to include the whole population in the economic system.

Why we are speaking about inclusive finance?

Finance becomes inclusive from the moment when it enables a given beneficiary, such as a family, a young entrepreneur, a larger firm to access to an suite of services and products, sometimes personalised, which respond to a specific need.

Those products or services can be financial, for example a credit, access to a dematerialised payment system, subscription to an insurance or transaction management. But they can also be non-financial: training, legal or accounting aid or support in launching a business.

Inclusive finance is considered responsible when it takes into account all the actors of a value chain, so not only the final beneficiary, but also donors, microfinance institutions, and in a more global way the environmental, energetic or economic impact which it can have on our planet.